A Sacred, Beautiful, and Powerful Familiar
by Antawa
Summary: On ancient Terra, there was a saying: be careful what you wish for. Louise Francoise Le Blanc de la Valliere had wished for a sacred, beautiful, and powerful familiar, but the Chaos God Tzeentch had taken notice. She received a Bloodthirster, Greater Daemon of Khorne, which could, by some accounts, fulfill those basic requisites.
1. ACT I PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER I

**Disclaimer: I be straight up violating copyright law. There be nothing that gonna happen to me.**

**A Sacred, Beautiful, and Strong Familiar Spirit**

**Prologue- The Familiar Summoning**

**Act I: To Deny One's Nature**

**[/]**

**Undisclosed Imperial System**

As the chanting continued apace to the dark rituals of the cultists, the barriers between real space and the hellish realm known as the Warp began to fray. Spilt blood fed the portal that grew ever wider, ravenously consuming reality and bending it to its own will. Soon, the summoning would be complete. Soon, the Chaos forces, already in control of the planet, would triumph over those foolish chattel of the False Emperor in the battle for this sub-sector. For the cultists had beckoned to Khorne in a great sacrifice, and the Blood God deigned to answer their call by sending forth one of his mightiest and most terrible servants: a Bloodthirster.

The Bloodthirster impatiently awaited the portal's completion... and grew in rage the longer and longer it dallied. There was slaughter ahead, an entire system, and then more, to be sacrificed to mighty Khorne! For this delay, he would have the skulls of every foolish cultist on the pitiful world he was departing for. After several minutes, the chanting strangely began to die down. It was still present, but something rose above the din: it was the voice of a pathetic mortal, likely little more than a mewling child by its tone.

"My slave who lives somewhere in this universe! Oh sacred, beautiful, and strong familiar spirit! I desire and here plead from my heart! Answer to my guidance!"

That whelp dared to presume to command him, an avatar of bloodyhanded _Khorne _himself; a neverborn embodiment of destruction given form and unleashed?! He would take delight in tearing the arrogant mortal apart, limb from limb, with his massive whip. And then repeating that action upon every single one of those weakling scum within the immediate radius.

Without further impediment, the Bloodthirster surged fowards, not heeding the fact that the portal had changed from a deep scarlet to a shade of green, and that its shape was warped from a jagged but still perfect circle into a slightly bent oval. "_No matter"_, it presumably thought through screams of anger in its mind. It was the correct size now, and would allow him through to a new, untouched land which would become the next battlefield for the Blood God.

[/]

Tzeentch himself, the Architect of Fate, Great Conspirator, and Changer of Ways, gazed upon the ball of pure, flowing Warp energy and saw the breadth of the galaxy. He plotted and planned, creating countless schemes and conspiracies every moment. Nothing escaped his reach; he was powerful in a way only one of the four Gods of Chaos could be.

By pure luck, his attention caught a lone Bloodthirster. A terrifying monstrosity by most beings' standards, but a mere insect in face of his power. No, there was nothing remarkable about the Bloodthirster's appearances, but rather the circumstances it was in.

To begin with, it was moving through an unnaturally fluid stream of the Immaterium, even by the demanding standards of the realm. It practically rocketed towards its destination, which the Raven God scried and followed ahead. Interestingly enough, the Chaos God concluded that the daemon would soon be hastily transported to a completely different universe. Tzeentch examined the universe, in particular the primitive planet the Bloodthirster was destined for, and took in as much information possible.

Following that lead, Tzeentch also investigated the daemon a little closer. It seemed its true name was Saito Hiraga. This puzzled him (for it was clearly pronounceable and not radiating malevolence) until he realized that that particular Bloodthirster was named so in an age long past, when Chaos was still young and Daemon Princehood had not yet been perfected. Strong warriors, by Khorne's favor, would have their name and some of their base soul taken up by one of his daemonic champions, to live on in such a legacy.

Tzeentch grinned at that fact, having seen how another time had played out with another by the identical name. In its viewing of the world, Tzeentch had seen an alternate reality of an ancient Terran who had been summoned and lived an intriguing life on the planet. He was a far cry from the warrior namesake of the daemon, and only shared a name. Any fighting prowess arose from some strange manner of non-Warp sorcery involving runes etched upon his hand not dissimilar (in appearance) to the ones the Necrons would write with. Still, his life was interesting. Perhaps a little too Slaaneshi centered, but highly amusing nonetheless.

And so it was that the Weaver of Destinies formed yet another plan in his mind, and in the plan staked out the path ahead for yet another being. Two, in fact. One would be bound to the other in mind. He would use these facts in conjunction to bind the daemon to the summoner, weak as she was. In the process, he would observe and learn of the witchcraft on the planet, as well as amuse himself.

Tzeentch was thankful that the particular daemon in his attention was a servant of Khorne. Khorne never seemed to keep track of his minions (as Skarbrand had exemplified), unlike if it were a Great Unclean One, in which case that slovenly Nurgle, what with his strange compassion for his pawns, would likely take note of and interfere with his coming work.

The Chaos God cast an arcane illusion to veil the Bloodthirster as he saw fit and another spell for him to track the infernal being. Then, he began to slowly chuckle. And then he broke into malevolent laughter. Which accelerated more into a full-blown, no-stops villain's sinister litany of levity.

Sensing his master's cue, a nearby Lord of Change entered Tzeentch's chambers and restrained himself from audibly sighing. It called upon a sacrifice of nine thousand innocents from some hapless Imperial world, consuming their very souls and torturing them for eternity in a second, and then materialized a refreshment out of pure Empyrean energy. It handed its master the beverage and departed.

Tzeentch drank in some of the martini, continuing his mad laughter before pausing to utter something ominously.

"It begins."

**Chapter 1- Dreams of Slaughter**

Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Vallière coughed in light of the recent explosion. She took note that telltale sign of a miscast and hoped against hope that she had not failed yet again. And, it seemed... her hope would be... vindicated? The smoke cleared, only to bring her a disappointing half-success.

"A-a commoner?" she asked aloud. Other students had begun to laugh and give off remarks as to how expected that was of her. She mentally began to sink into the ground, and almost physically followed through on that. "Mr. Colbert! May I please resummon?"

"No, you absolutely may not! The summoning ritual is sacred, passed down from Brimir himself! To do otherwise is blasphemy. I'm sorry, Louise, you must complete the binding."

Louise looked upon the boy ahead of him and blushed. "Y-you should be h-happy. Normally someone of noble birth would never do this to a commoner."

She walked up to the commoner and then spoke, "My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Vallière... Oh pentagon that rules the five powers, bless this individual and make him my familiar." Before she could hesitate or he could move about, Louise planted her lips on the boy in front of her in a rapid, chaste kiss.

Or at least what she thought were his lips.

The Bloodthirster on the receiving end of the kiss was furious. As a living manifestation of rage, that was to be expected. But right now, he was even more furious than usual. He had gone through the portal expecting a blasted-out hellscape full of sacrifices aplenty, but instead found himself surrounded by verdant pastures of bright grass.

Raising his gargantuan battleaxe in pure, unadulterated contempt, he prepared to strike the ground to burn the surrounding area and let loose a host of lesser daemons to follow in the flames of slaughter.

So singlemindedly engrossed was he in this task that he did not notice the small, pink girl that he had vowed to tear apart with his whip less than several minutes ago after hearing her voice. He did notice once it... made as if to bite him but instead rubbed her lips against his leg instead of doing that.

This only confused him, and he _did_ _not_ like being confused. In fact, being confused made him _very_ _angry. _Turning his attention momentarily away from bringing forth apocalypse, the Bloodthirster made ready to strike the puny female, and using the whip only.

But then something that really, really pissed him off happened. He failed to raise his weapon, and it was suddenly as useful as wearing cement slippers in the swimming pool (an experience which the human warrior Saito had had when living on accursed Terra). This was followed by a pricking sensation on his body akin to being trapped in cement as a colony of ants bit away at him (another unwanted memory).

He could feel raw energy flowing through him as marks were etched into him- and not the Mark of Khorne. At the same time, the Bloodthirster swore he felt the work of the foul sorcerer god Tzeentch (his name be thrice-damned) at play alongside some manner of laughter, and almost feeling fear at that but then quickly reverting to extreme loathing and hatred.

Looking down, he decided he would tear apart all those Khorne-damned sorcerers below him. He would not limited by a simple spell, backed by a Chaos God or not! With a mighty roar, he invoked the power of his master's name while pouring all his effort into a devasting blow... and exploded for his efforts.

[/]

Louise looked upon that stupid commoner, now her familiar, and sighed. He had just started screaming, presumably from being bound as her familiar, and then exploded. She hadn't even done it that time! The pathetic wastrel now lay on the grass, softly snoring.

It was true that she had summoned him, and he was at least proof of her ability as a mage, but couldn't she have caught a break from God and been given something like beautiful and strong, like she asked for? Was that _really too much to ask for? _To maybe receive a gryphon or something?

_"No," _she thought to herself, "_I must stop thinking such blasphemous thoughts. This is heresy." _It had been seen fit that she was to be granted a plebeian. But then, if the familiar matched the summoner, what did that make her?

_"Irrelevant," _she decided. She now had to take him up to her room, such that he may learn his place as her servant.

Strangely, when she tried to lift him up, she could not even get him to budge. She strained and put all her effort into it, and was rewarded only with a terrible _crack_ from her arms before she collapsed on the ground. Shaking off the pain, she brought herself up again. What, now she was even a failure physically? The boy was only slightly bigger than her. That stupid thing lay completely oblivious to the world, grinning dumbly as it snored softly, reminiscent of a dog. A dog, yes, that was apt to describe it. Ironically enough, that was closer to the truth than Louise simply taking a shine to calling it a stupid dog. Bloodthirsters are noted for their ferocious canine features.

Surely she could at least drag the stupid dog up? She was glad most classmates had already stopped caring and left already.

But then that nagging, husky voice that she knew too well poked up again. "Ooh, having some trouble there, Zero?" Kirche asked smugly.

"N-no, I was-"

"Well, I pity you a little bit. I'll help you, since you are the Zero after all." Kirche made to levitate him with her wand, only nothing happened. The smug, reassured look on her face dropped a moment before redoubling. She would not give up so easily, as it was. After all, to appear weak in magic in front of her rival would only mark her as a hypocrite.

She poured all her willpower into the levitation spell, only to receive head-blistering pain and collapse without a word.

"H-huh?" Louise was slightly confused, but could not help but feel a little better upon seeing Kirche sprawled out on the ground from such a simple task like that. She looked to the boy, then back at Kirche. Tabitha stood silently above, and only shrugged when Louise gave her a questioning look.

"Mr. Colbert?" she called out to the teacher, who seemed to curiously be examining the boy's runes after he had confirmed that Kirche was not injured and informed her salamander familiar to drag her away.

"Yes? What is it, Miss Vallière?"

"Please... Help me bring my familiar to my room."

All told, it seemed no one could move him at all for the next few minutes of struggling. It was humorous to Tzeentch, but he decided to lighten the Bloodthirster's weight before the magi present saw through the collective stupedifying effect he had cast to affect those near the daemon and called for help. Best that the entire school not be getting too nosey, which they most certainly would be if more people were called over to help.

Louise suddenly went flying backwards before slamming into the ground holding her familiar. Tabitha, who had been idly reading a book but tacitly watching the scene, moved to dodge. Some unseen force knocked her off her feet as well though. Louise swore the blue-haired girl almost looked embarrassed after she recovered and left.

This same unseen force would present itself when Louise recovered her faculties and attempted to move the unconscious being into the Academy. Every time she tried moving into the building, a large _clunk _would sound off and Louise was dangerously close to reaching the conclusion that the person she was carrying was not actually a person.

Sometime between her now angrily throwing a tantrum and readying to slam the door with the plebian's head, a certain Chaos God chuckled to himself, "How very short-sighted of me. I had applied the illusion and adjusted his weight, but not altered his size."

Louise proceeded ahead to ram the door, but now merely found no resistance and instead sailed right on through it and slammed head first into a wall before she could slow herself down.

The pink-haired girl moaned as she picked herself up. "_It seems since that stupid dog showed up that's been happening a lot. I will properly discipline it for this_. _And then lay down the rules for it to follow_." Louise was already ready to take out her frustrations now that she finally had someone below her, it seems.

And so it was by this puerile, domineering thought that Louise would begin down the path of realising there was something deeply, deeply wrong with her familiar.

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Saito woke with a start, and a half-dozen questions after surveying his close surroundings. Namely, _where was he, how the hell did he get here, what was going on, how to get out of here, hey is that a girl with a whip, and AAAAAAAARGGGGFFHCKIFL WHY IS SHE HITTING ME GYGGGGGGGGASHAHHHH.__  
_

_"_You stupid dog!" she yelled as she whipped him repeatedly.

Oh, another question now. How did he understand French? And why was the pain starting to feel good... Not good as in pleasure, but like a natural feeling, like it was how he was supposed to feel?

He had an inexplicable urge to suddenly start yelling, and not he was not even sure what exactly said yelling entailed. He didn't wonder for long however, because, in a bizarre out-of-body experience, he felt something take over his bodily controls.

"YES! YESSSSS!" the not-him screamed,"BLOOD! GIVE US BLOOD! HE CARES NOT FROM WHERE IT FLOWS!" This was then followed by

athrugijgjgj his tongue began twisting in impossible motions, letting loose the language of the damned, the -¿!¡%$#

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。̴̶̶̴̬͔̣͚̲̟̠̝̝͕̘̯̘̳̤̹̺͉̥̅͐̔ͬͥ̒̎ͩͤͯ̽͐ͯ͛ͩ͛̚͘「̴̯̠͇̺̞̞̹̝̼̤̠̣̰͈͈͓̙̙ͤ̈́̅ͯ̂́̕͜ͅ「͍̟͎͇͔͕̪ͨ͗͂̊̒̑͐͞͞「̱̞̪̻̺̙̹̭̭̦̼̫̫̪̞̤̀ͭ͛̅͒̌̿ͥͯͦͭ̇ͥ̀͢͞͠「̡̠̼̟̭͚͖̜̞̯̄͑̄ͩͣ̌̕「̸̵̼̦̘̹̦̮͓̗̗͍͓͚͍ͮ̌́̒͠͞「̧͎͚̼̮̼͚̻͉͓́͒̂̏̅͛͆͌ͭ「̱̬͇͍͎͕̠̋̎̉̔̍͛̐̈́̎ͨ̀ͮ̓͐ͬ́̕͢͞「̵̵̶̰͙͈̞̣͋ͮͣ́̔͐̉̀͞ͅ「̷̷͍͕̻̙̭̗̪̰̩̝̖̮͉͖̿ͣ͒̀̆͌͋̒̀ͮ͊̈́̍͑́̚͟͜ͅ「̴̌ͫͮ͒ͧ̏̏̐̽́҉̧̛̻̗͕͍̖̣̠̼̗͈̼̙͖͎̣͉̫ͅ「̩̩̘̺͚̤͓̬̰ͮͩ̿̏̇ͮͫͦ͛ͩ̉̑ͬ̏̆̈͋̄ͣ̀͝͡「̼̰̠͍̠̦̹͕̯̂ͪ̐ͤ̐̎͌ͮ̋͞ͅ「̶̡͉̯͔͎̭͚͔̹̠̩ͦͭ̎̀ͪ̔̅̊͟͠」͚̺͔̦̥̝̗̯͉͈͉͓́ͥͤ͒ͣ̀͋ͪ͢͜͝」̴̛̈̌̍̐͆ͫ̅̿҉҉̡̗̮̝̰̭͍͚̬̱͈̱̥̳̝͓̝̥̘ͅ」̶͔̩̩̘ͦ͑̓̇̈́͘͞͞」̡̡̡̓̍̋̆̈̏ͥͭ͐̂̇̓̊́͏̰̩͓̣̦͍̟͉̟͔̳̜̞̗̖」̶̵̹̳̣̱̂̆͗̽̿͗̌ͤ̆ͦ̒̋̐̋͑́」̵̡̛̩̱̭͔̳̩̩̓͗̅ͨ̿̿̉̾ͣ̉̃͂͂」̶̯͚̖͈̯̳̭͈̘͎͚̘͍͎͇͚͕̽ͨ̏」̮͎̠̤̈́ͥ͒̚͜͝」̛̬̭͚͕̠̼̥̳̦̺͕̻̘̤̮ͭ̐̀̏̊͝ͅ。̨̡̙͕̤̥̪͚͇̖̫͕̟̪̇ͦ̏̆̽ͨ́̒ͪ̈́̊̀̚ͅ、̷͖̖͓̟̙̜͈̳͕̹̠͕̼̝̣̿̃̄̋̊ͩ̓ͫ̑̐͞。̴̵̛̛̦͇̰̜̞̮͈̓ͩ̋̌̾͞ͅ、̸̨̪̘̞͇̺̗̘̺͍̤̯̟̻͒ͭ̋ͥͣ͋̔ͥ̾ͧ̀͡。̨̭̠̳̝͎̣͈̰̻̺̥̭̥͕̂͑̔ͣͭ̃̓͛͡͞、̫̤̝͎̫͔̐ͨ̊ͧͨ̅ͤ͢͠ͅ。̋͗̆ͥ̽͂̎ͣ̉ͬ̑̈ͣ̏ͪ́́҉̡̨͓͉̘͔̣̘̥͉̟͖͔̝̥͎̘ͅ、̡̡̼͈̰̘̞̠͓̗̭̳̂ͭ̓͋̊͗̀͑̈̽ͬ͘ͅͅ。̓̂ͧ̋̓ͧͭ̽̄ͮ̍̇̇̆̓̽̚͜҉̀҉̡͕͙̰ͅ、̨̥̖̭̠͎͎͔̹͖̗̜̗̇̿̋̅ͧͨ̇̇́ͅ。̴̶̷̢̘͕̘̫̱͈͉̟̯̳̠̬̥̓̃̏̈́̌̿̾ͭ̓̏̚͘、̅̅̿̀͏̸̛̯̯͓͓̭͙̹̺̤͔̘͘͞。̧̫͓̟͕̼̭̙̦̪̥̜̥̲̯̌̊ͭ̀̊̐ͣ͗ͦ̑̒̉͌̔́̑̀͜͞ͅ。͚̪͚̲̲̖̪͈̮̅ͯͪͥͥ͒̍̓ͫ̒͒̔̽̾ͨ̚͝、̷̛̖̯̖̳̪̖̣͎̳͕̠͎̋͗͗ͣ̊ͯ̉̍̋ͣͧͯ̓ͨ̈̂̅̇。̶̧̯̘̙͓̫͔͈̯ͮ̉̅ͫͨ̅͊̀̒͑͜͞、̨̜̜̙̜̝̜͖̞ͥ̒̍̐͗ͫ̀̈̎͘͞。̨̨͖̹̤͍̟̮͔̳͖͈͙̥͇͓̻͔̼̳ͣͪ͒ͯ͒͌̂̑̒͐̈́̾͌̋͌̆͘͟͢、̸̡̹͕̠̤̜̞̝̘̻̞͍̯͎̓͊̅ͣ͊̓̚͘͡。͗̔̊ͤ̾ͤͯ͊̇ͨ͏͍̤̥̩͇̼̝̯͎̥͉̞̼͓͎̹「̨̲͉̱͓͓̹͈̩͇̖̣͎͚̯̫͙̼̹͋̑ͭ͂ͣ̇̇̆̄̓͒͛̐̾̓̇̃ͦͩ́「̶͉̤̤̥̼̹̘̬͓͈̋̈́ͯ̄͊ͨͪ̊̀͂͛̇̍ͨ́̾͝ͅ「̢̪̣̙͚͚͉̬̤̠̞͖̖̟̗̮͊̾̌̎͂̿ͮ͟「̡̛͌ͥ̂ͮ̈͗̉̃͜͡͏̗͓̖̘̱「̧̠͎̺̣̻̟̱̞̬̠͕̠̟̹̟͎͈ͪͧ̿͌̓ͧ̔͊ͣ͒̒ͨͦ̽̓͞「̴̨̪̰̹̻̜͔̮̂͑̓͆̎ͨ͋̅ͥ̔̓̆̊̐̅「͗͊ͤ̅ͤ́̀̑̉ͬͥ̎҉̧͔͙̹͉̩̼͎̬̙̥͔͍̟͖̪͡「̜͚͔̙͖̼̻͉͙̎ͭ̐̈́́͘͢͟ͅ「̷̨̧͓̮͍̖̼̮̲̱̠̺̯͖͇͈̲̬̞̊̍̎̂ͫ̄ͭ̄͋̔̆̎ͫ̏ͫ̕ͅ「̴ͦͨ͆̒̀̿͠͏̶̵̹̮̻̲͕̜̬̣̮̙̰「̴̴̛̗̰̜̪̖̩̻̣̮͈̫̪̠͓̬ͭ̎̅͗͋ͨ̉ͨ͆̍̈ͧ̇͑ͬ̎̕͟「̡̘͖̣̩͛͂͐̅̊̇͐ͤ̆ͨͨ̇͗̓͛ͧͦ̅̀̕「͓̲̠̻͉̂ͬ̎ͩͩ̔̋͐ͪ̂ͯ́」̷̨̰͎̝̝̣̜̦̣͕̜̜̪̻̯̫̜ͣ͂̿͆ͧ̆̌̕͟」̴̢̞̟̞̘̳͔͍̲̺̞̳̣̺̰͇̞̍͑͛͛̒͘͟」̶̰̭̲̣̗̳̻͈̖̜̹͇͔̠ͯ͐̎̀ͯ̏̕」̸̷̭̮̲̣͔͎̤͎͇͈̽̿̎̄̋̓͂ͨ̔ͪ̚͘」̛͍̱̤ͧ͊͗̇͊ͤ̂͗̂͆ͣ」̶̢̑͊ͯ͑̋̅̆͐ͭͮ͒ͥ̂̑̾̈̂͗͡҉͚͍̻̤̬̪̬̣̳͎͙̟͕̖͔͔͉ͅ」̢̦̤̳̺̻͓͍̌̃͐͑̈́̆̑̓̆̉̐͆̚͢͝͝」̢͌͊͊̑̿̉́̍͂ͦ̋͌ͪͩ̃̅̈́̚͏͈͓̺̦̦͚̖͕͎̱ͅͅ」̶̴̰̥̟̯̤̬ͩ͛̊ͬ̌ͣ̾̓ͤͫ͆̔̓͋̀͂̀。̴̵͕̫͚̯̜̱̼̬͉͎̗͎͋̎͑̽͒̀ͅ、̊͗̐͑̊̓͗͐҉̵̛̮̻̳̱̰̖̙͎̱̭̲͉̞ͅ。̴̧̰̫̰̦̯̩͎̌̒ͥ̀̆͑͗ͅ、̵̛̠̘͖̝͖̰͔̤̩̪͉̑ͯ͋̄͊。̡͔͍̠͙̂̑̅͒ͤ͒͋ͧ̇̑̔̂̾͂́、̛̛̰̰̫̜͎͈ͭ͆͑͊ͣ͑̈́ͥ̆ͮ。̡̉͆̎̐͑͂̈́͒̊̈͒̒́͏̹͚͖̹̤̭̼̱̕͡、̶̷͓̮͙͇͋ͬ̒̅͂̔͆̔̏̅͌͢。̸̢̤̱͓̠̹̰̻̙̘̠̝͓̳͉͍̳͖̠̃̇͑̈̓̓̎ͩͨ͆̎̌̀̒ͯ͌͗̈́ͮ͜、̾ͣ̈́ͦ̀ͨ͐̓ͪ̐̍͂ͤ͆̈҉̧̝̬͖̤̯͉̝̱̕͟͡。̷̣̤̪̆ͪͮͮ̂̎̾ͦ͐ͬ́̇͘、̐͑͆̑̇ͭ̒͂̾̒̌̏͜͜͝͠͏̮͍̫͉͎。̏̌ͤͤ͊̃ͯ͌͊ͬ́̆̉̍͋̈̏ͦ̐͏̖͇͇̰̭̮̠̥̣͢。̍ͯ́͂̚͏̡̥̹̺̫͍̬̘͖̯、̡̿ͦ͗ͪ̓͒͂ͪ͌ͤ҉͙̺̥̰͔̗͖̥̘́ͅ。͙̻̥̭̲̗̖̥̭͕͔̠͕̗͚̠͈̮̘̈́͊̋͌̓̂ͨ͛̇͆̎ͧ͗̂ͥͬ̔ͯͩ́、̵̻͍͓̼̤̘̖̖͑̒̒̂̿̒ͣ͗ͧͤͨͣͩ͂͒͡͡。̸̢̮̳͖͖̥̘̱̥̼͔̮̞̦̼͓̣̅̃ͧ̌ͩͣ͒͜͜͝、̶̼̞͕͔̙̤̎ͣͪ͌ͫ͗̊̊ͧͪ̀͘͞。̿̽̌ͩ̒ͣͬ̍ͦͭ̆̂̈́̔ͩ̄҉͈͓̺̥͟

[̸̨̨̛͕̬̫͓̒ͦ̓͗̌͒ͪ̌̽̎̑͐͆̐́[͉̮͍̠͚̤͙͚̖̓̓͆ͣͤͩ̋͗̆͋̔ͫ̃̚͢͞ͅ[̡̩̙̰̖̖̜̟̪̱̩̦͉̜̬̩̠̭͈̎̃̅̓́̚[̵̗̦̫̰̹͈̟̼͔͓̌͂͌ͣ̃ͯ̎̀̓ͪ̌̃͢[͔̳̻̂̅̀ͬ̅͊̆̽͑͐̽̃̏͆̈́̈̄ͧ̔͟͞͞ͅ[̪͎̬̟͎͆̇̃̇͐ͮ̿̓̀͟͜[̟̦̥͙̫̬̠̗̖̮͇͉ͤ̆̊̓ͤ̈́̾͒͑͑̍͗ͧͧ͛̀̚̕[̶̫͎͎͓̲̪̼̼̟̞͎͈͕̱̗̊̒ͣ̎̾͆̆̔̓́̀[̢̡̨̜̩̻͎͋̾̓̆͒ͤͯͥ̾͂͢[̸̋́̌̓ͦ̎ͩ̽͋̆̓͏̹̥̪̯̳̬͕̤̞̜̮͚̞̜̫̗[͂̾͌ͫ҉̵̶̢̤̬̟̘͉͎͖̤͔͓̣̯̱͚̱͕̲͈̺́[̎͆̄͌̂̌͑̌ͬ̽́̇ͩ҉̞̪̱̝̀[̶͊̓̿͛ͣ̄̀͟͝҉̣͚̩͈[̷̶̨̦̹͉̘̖̳̟͍̙̘̫͉ͬͯͤͭͮ͆͌̍̍̇͊[ͯͨ̊͊̄̀ͫͩ̾ͮ̄̒͂ͭ̓̚҉҉̣͕̠̬͚͉̬̞͚̺̜ͅ[̡̧̤͇̙̥̼͙̓ͯͬ̍̍͆̕ͅ]̡̨̡͎̗̟̮ͮ̔͊ͨͯ͋̐͂ͥ̄̊̄̂͌̕]̴̧͇͖̬͉͈̲͎̘̮̱͓̫͉͛͋̽̔̇̔͛̍͛̒̚]̽̔̿̌́̂̅̆̃ͦ̂̎͒̚҉̜̖̭̥̥̖̹ͅ]̸̧̖̣̣͖̝̪̙̻̬ͩ̌̈́̓ͣͨͧ̊͛ͨ̍ͯͦ̔̀̀͘ͅ]̷̦͎̭̗͕͓̪͆ͬ͛͑ͣͭ͛̄͘͘]̰̭͙̬̎̾̂ͨ̋̓̉̐̃̕]̤̱̲̠͑̉ͮ̈̉͂̿̈́͢]ͥͦ̆ͭ̽ͮ̈ͧ̓ͣ̉ͯ́҉̙̠͇̣ͅ]̷̢̻̞̙̬̖̜̞͍̥̺͎͕͉̫̄́̇̒̍̄̄̅ͤ͛ͧͩ͋ͦ̏̏ͦ̊ͧ͢͠]̴̴̡͖̮̼̦̥͖̯̪͈̹̈̌̋͐ͣ̿͆̐ͬ̾̅̿]̻͖̱̠͍̻̫̃̃̐̓ͨͭ͒ͮ̓͡ͅ]̷̨̭̜͖̣̤̣̯̮̮͎͛ͦ̀ͩͬ̆̑͗̽̈̌ͨ͢ͅ]̴̛͙̭͈̝̜̮͚̥̘͕̘̟̻͖̥͆̂ͮͫ̏、̵ͦ̅̒͌̔̐ͤ͂̂̈́͗͒̔̚͏͏̣̖̠̪̳͙͙̣̟̱̝̣̜̳̭、̴͓̥̜̩͔̹͔̪̇ͭ̿̋̎ͬ̐͌ͩͫͮͥͥ̂̀͝、̴̸̞̤̺̣̻̮̈́ͦͯͮ̓̒̈́͛̑̒ͨ̚͘͡ͅ、̿̍̓͂̐ͩ҉̵̖͓͚̳、̨̢̝̯̗̫̮͎͚̦̟̯͇̖̭ͫ̉̄̈ͬ͘͢͞ͅͅ、̵̴̢̰̳̦̮̱̹̬̬͔̹̝̿ͦͩ̾ͯ̃ͧ̾͌͜͝、̨̛̹̮̥͓̬̖̀ͭ̾͐͡͠͞、̢͇̜̭͍̰͙̱̞͚̙ͧ͊̄̇͌͛̒̆̎͐̆̾ͧ̚̚、̢̨̗̘͚̫̱̲̟͙͕̼̲̥̔͌̀͑ͯ͂̅̓́̿͐ͥ̀̽ͪ́̚͡

ನ̛͓͙̯͔̤̻̹ͭ͊ͮͧ̿̽ͦ̄͑̽̇́͘͜ಾ̧͗̈́͂̽̓̒ͦͬ̾̈ͦ̃͐͑ͯͣ̃҉̲̲̺͖͠ನ̡̣͕̣̮̣̤̠̮̦̝͖̺͐ͤ̀ͬ͐̅ͣ̄ͥ͒ͯ̈́̅͐̆͂ͩ̈́ͫ͢͟ು̏̄͑ͯ̍͟҉̛͓͉̣̮͍̥̟̘͇̬͇̪̬̖͚͔̠͞ ̸͈̖̼̝͎̠̝͈̳̦̼͕̠̮̘̙̍̃̔ͯͨͅರ̢̰̝̼̖̭͓̭͔̝̝͉̮̲̹̗͙̍̄̈ͦ͝ͅಸ್̣̦͙̻͕̠̪̞͖̻̥̯̩̰̣̼̗ͬ̋͒̇̾̐ͮ̊̂͗͒͋͋̒́̐ͩ̒ͣ̾ͦ̑̀ͦͥ̃̓͠͝͡͝͡ͅತ̡̛̦͈̯͔̪͇̠͍̳̣̹̠͔̟͕̲̰̰̏̈ͭ͒ͧ͂͆͂́̈̅ೆ̨̥͕̬̺̪͓̦ͦ̌͑ͫͧͯ̽͊͞ͅಯ̢̨̠̣͈̮̥̗̊̾ͬ͐̋ͪ̆ͯ́̕͞ͅಲ̷̷̶್̱̠̬̩͓͉̭̥͙͔͙̫̳̣̹̫͖͙͊̓ͣ̾ͯ̀̉͆͐ͧ̂̐̔ͮ́̕͟͜͡͡ಲ̢͚̘̬͔̈́̐̾̌̽́ಿ̸̩̳̞̦̫̞̭͓̯͇̘̹̻̻̮ͯͬ̂ͪͯͅ ̧̦̯͍̬̟͓͈̂̓͆̅̾̽̐̀̓ͣ̋ͤͫͥ̀͜ಕ̨̨͕̹͍̩̘̬͍͕͔̳͕͖͔̭̱̩̀̉ͧ͗̔͘͝ೆ̖̘͙̫̼̩͉̟̩̙͉̖͔̲̖̬̭̾͆ͬͩ́ͅͅಳ̧͉̙̬̱̦͉̭̳̲̦͎̙̟̭́̈̈́̋̿͌ͩ͊͘͠ಗ̴̸̛͚̱͔͔̞̤̺̻̞̝̎͑ͪ̀͛̾͂͐͡ೆͪͥͫ̄̇̉̄̎͌̀ͦ͐͆̒ͬ̄͋ͤ̂͏̴̧̛̻̭͙͕̻͖̗̻͕̭͞ ̫̘̩͕̹̋̐ͥ̇̉̄̎̅̍̒̍̀̿̈́̃̒͒́̚ͅವ̨̼̮̥̩̱̖͂̃̐̔̃̑̊̽ͤ̏̿ͦͨ̌̈́͒̕̕͠ಾ̍̍̈́͋͌ͭͥ̒͐̇͑̍ͣ͏̧̨̻̲̰̠͓̰̘͔̼̪̮̩ಕ̨̢̼̲̥̙̤͔̲̙̝̥͙͔͙̼͚͈̤̋ͬͬ̈́͂̈́͒̃͜ಿ̈ͤͭͧͮ͂̀ͥͦ́̄̇̈́͒ͪ̾͝҉͍̭̭͚͟͞ಂ̸̢̘̳͍̩̯̪̜͇̖ͦ́̅̔́̄͢ಗ̷್̧̛̝̝̳͖̘̳̯̟̮̩̠̰͓̗͈̣̼̺͐ͯͣ́͊̀͐ͮ̒̄ͪ̒͑͒̽ͣ͂̀ͨͣ̿ͪ͗ͯ̽͛̈́̑͗̾̇̍̉ͩ̓̍͞҉̹̠͍̖̗͉̦̱̗̳̣ ͛͋̆̒̈́͂͗̌̈͑͗҉̷̧̢͇̞̻̟̫͇͈̟̝͉͙̥̻̩͜ಮ̢̟͉̦͓͉̻͕̼̘̪̜̤̎͐͂ͨ͐̌̾ͤ̋̆̓̐ͧ̉͊͗̊͠ಾ̸̭̥̩̬͔͇̞͖̫̲̻̍̐̈̒͐̃̉̅̔͘ಡ̨͎̖͔̞̲̩̄̔̇͐ͫ̊͂̑͞͞ͅಲ̠̺̝̻͓̉ͤ̌̆͛̎͂ͫͦ̐̈ͨ̅̆̀͢͢ಾ̷̷ͬ͊́̎͛́̇̆͋̇ͯ̿ͯ̄̏̈̂͒̀́҉̹̥͍͇̳̻̲̻̯̥ͅಯ̨͔̭͕͖͔͕̺̬̖̬̩͊̎ͫ̏̉̽ͪ̆̈́̊̽̌̏͌͜͠ಿ̋̃ͬͭͫ̂̉́̎̑̽̓̋̊̽̐ͬͭ̚͞͏̧̹̥̤̟̹̞̜͚ತ̷̡͍͇͙̗̰͔̠̣̯̱͍̤͍̣͕̮̰̉ͦ̉̒̈ͫ̉ು̷̞̖͔͇̻̖̼͇̰̔̈́͗ͨ͗̈́̂ͤ̀͟͢͡͞

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_Luckily, for the sake of Saito's newly remanded-to-mortal mind and Louise's fragile psyche, Saito soon collapsed from the strain. He fell into a deep repose._

_And, in that repose, he began to dream. He dreamt as he never had before, which was in a way true, for daemons never do dream, because they are in essence dreams themselves, as they are emotions given physical form._

_In this dream, he saw vivid visions. Visions of conquest, slaughter, and wholesale destruction on a scale he could hardly comprehend. Planets were cast aside, swatted like flies in a moment. One particular Earth-like world was the centerpiece of attention. Once verdant and lush, the landscape was now blasted-out and pockmarked by all possible signs of war. And, in the most unsettling part of the dream, he reveled in it. In fact, he was causing most of it. Not strictly him, but he saw a towering beast of war, lord of the battlefield, sweeping through and destroying all opposition without mercy, and he knew it was him without saying._

_Even farther in the distance, there was a small, pink glimmer. For now, it filled him with rage, as he also knew without words that pink was the color of The Enemy, despite not knowing what this entailed exactly. The pink object turned, and the horizon swallowed it up. But it was not the last Saito would see of it._

* * *

**Author's Note**

If I made a terrible, terrible grammatical error _***gasp*** _anywhere, please point it out. No matter how small of a peccadillo it was.

Also, a question to anyone with basic knowledge of Japanese: what is the correct rendering of Saito's name?

As far as I can I tell, Saito being spelled 才人 and all, it should be straight up Sai + to. But the page on the wikia for Zero no Tsukaima seems to list it as 平賀才人 Hiraga Saitō.

I don't think that's right, really, and a cursory search (read: looking on Wikipedia) shows these readings for 人 and seems to support that opinion:

Goon: にん (nin)  
Kan'on: じん (jin)  
Kun: ひと (hito), り (ri)  
Nanori: じ (ji), _**と (to)**_, ね (ne), ひこ (hiko), ふみ (fumi)

And important to note is the last line of nanori readings. There is no ō (ou).

Yes, but then just to say "NOPPPE" to me even more, the other wiki for this series, The Familiar of Zero .wikia, seems to list his name as the much more common name of 斎藤, which is definitely Saitou/Saitō. But then this version of Saitou is a last name, and, as last names are often given first in East Asia, that would fit with him being called by it through the entire series. Except people close in relation probably wouldn't do that, unless Saito was too stupid in the series to ever tell anyone his real first name? So what the hell is even going on anymore?

But then, to triple quadruple double bypass hot-diggity-dog créme de la barbecue fuck with me, the Familiar of Zero wiki page proceeds to contradict itself on the bottom by that _His name is written as "Ability Man". _In which case we would be back to the whole 才人 thing.

So if anyone has a raw of Zero no Tsukaima light novels, maybe you could do me a favor and look up how they write his name? Please? Because if I don't figure this out some time by June 17th of next year, I'm going to blow my brains out while jumping off the highest structure in my local residential area.

Only joking. Really.


	2. ACT I CHAPTER II

**The Author's Pre-ramble* **

**There may be some spoilers below.**

Regarding the dual personality thing/thirster being Saito thing- it's a way for Tzeentch to keep the daemon under wraps. If Saito the human is merged in and in control most of the time, then it wouldn't go rampaging and curb-stomp the entire world. From an out-of-universe perspective, it wouldn't make for a good story if it's just about ten chapters of a Bloodthirster crushing everything (although I would read that, I suppose, I wouldn't be up for distracting myself from the futility of life and every man's impending mortality by writing such a story). Hell, maybe I can even get in some character development from Saito struggling with his daemonic side. Probably not that much though, because internal conflict is a drag to lay on thick for both reader and writer.

It's interesting that people have ideas for the story in the reviews. Criticisms, even. Criticism is good though. It's feedback that shows people are reading this story and care enough to respond. I'll freely admit the first chapter is a bit bare and could have used more details to better explain everything, like how Saito's mind is in a Bloodthirster named Saito now. I'm not going to go back and change anything but some formatting and the all-important grammar, therefore what's done is done so far. But please have a little faith in the author. Almost every paragraph written is in there to be returned to later; every wording is intentional. I'll prove that faith unfounded (or not, maybe) in time. I do appreciate the suggestion that Tzeentch would be wanting to see how far he'd could push it, but I think the line about forgetting works better for my interpretation of his character. God or not, it's been said he runs contradictory to himself, although this never does seem to work against his grand schemes._ ("However, few of Tzeentch's plans are ever simple; some span aeons with their complexity, whilst many appear contradictory to others, or even against his own interests"_). I probably could have played that part up but I thought it wasn't too relevant anyways. Tzeentch is a real and true capital G God- it's just my opinion that you should not delve too much into a God's motivations than needed, because they are to be seen as a force-of-nature in their actions by other characters. That's why the Emperor hasn't received a point-of-view Horus Heresy novel, even though he's a central character in the setting of the Heresy era and it'd explain some of his more idiotic ideas. Anyways, that will be a plot element later that it's all proceeding according to plan. Warhammer 40K canon is pretty open-ended (read: everyone in Games Workshop keeps jamming whatever they think is cool into the fluff, the consequences be damned) though, so if you want you personally can see another part of Tzeentch feeling that he wanted to see how far he could 'push the fools.' I do think deeply about canon justifications for everything I add in story, which is actually probably not good for my health, because, as said, Warhammer canon is messier than taking taxes from a room full of CEOs.

As for the runes binding him- not really going to happen. In this chapter, you can see that the runes have something wrong with them; they are working effectively in that they do erase the essential parts of his memories but are slowly being diminished. Basically, the daemon is expending its attention going 'get out' all over it. Bloodthirsters are immune to pretty much all psychic powers or sorcery (it's true that I opted for magic being non-warp, but it's still sorcery and so will take a very, very powerful mage to override it. You see Saito is resistant to spells in chapter one due to the sheer power of a 'thirster)... so if Louise ever pushes him too hard after this chapter, to the point the human him gets tired of the whipping, he'll be out for BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD and SKULLS FOR THE SKULLS THRONE. Which is partially about why Louise changes. It's up to his own consciousness to not kill her and everybody in a planet-sized radius, so that'll be fun as sitting down in a bar full of hard characters and asking for a shot of milk.

Many thanks to all of you, but especially to the reviewer who hates Zero no Tsukaima nobles. I was able to follow a link from baka-tsuki which led to a link which led to a link on the Japanese Uncyclopedia of all places. Not sure if I could pull off that web-surfing again. It was there that I conclusively saw that Saito's proper name is Hiraga Saito, no ō (ou). It was 平賀 才人, last name Hiraga being first. Anyhow, I'll bet you'll enjoy the first part of the next chapter. Not this one, the next.

Sorry if the above reads like a psychology dissertation.

* * *

**The Disclaimer#**

The heavy pounding on the door was answered quickly by the abode's occupant, who walked himself outside into the peaceful evening. The two strolled casually under the night sky for a bit before dropping the innocent veneer upon concluding they were not being followed.

"Spiro! You got news? Is the op ready to go?"

"Sir! It is sir! We've thoroughly searched through the records, and have more than enough to implicate the writer of the seditious works! Sir!"

"Excellent," the man paused for a moment, "and what's the status on the legal strike teams?"

"Sir! Currently in low-atmospheric geostationary orbit! They are ready to deploy in on your command, sir!"

"You may proceed, then, with the operation." The man turned back towards his home and then finished with a curt _dismissed _to his subordinate. Spiro was about to depart according to that, but paused for a moment, considering one final fact before speaking up.

"Sir! Permission to speak freely! Sir!"

"Permission granted, lieutenant. Continue."

"Sir... Well, sir... There was a... A-a disclaimer. I wasn't sure if tha-"

"What?" the older man's eyes suddenly flashed in anger as he spun around. "Why wasn't I informed of this? Damn it Spiro, I expect you to keep me in the loop!"

Before Spiro could stammer out some form of apology, the agent pulled out a small microphone and spoke with somebody on the other end of it: "Call it off! Call it off! I know we've spent months preparing! You have to stop it now, the political fallout be damned! It'll be like Calcutta all over again if this op goes through!"

Panic rose steadily through the agent. Not again, not again; why him damn it!? The last disclaimer had claimed heaps of good men; his men. He shuddered as he remembered their haunting faces, begging for aid as they were dragged away into the abyss, screaming to the end.

Not only that, but, more importantly, he'd just finished digging himself up from the brink of career annihilation from the last time a disclaimer struck. It'd taken years of his blood, sweat, and tears: years of ass-kissing to those seat-polishing big-wig asshats in Washington, with extra hours always poured in every day, three marriages wrecked, and taking the shit jobs. By God, why, oh why... **_those damn_** **_disclaimers. Why him? _Why him?**

Why... him...?

**End Disclaimer**

* * *

**Chapter 2- A Taste of Power**

Louise woke from a fearful, sweat-drenched night. And by woke, it is meant that she dared to open her eyes, for she had not slept a wink through the living nightmare that her familiar had wrought.

She lucidly recalled last night's events, her brain still wracking itself, trying to make sense of it all.

First, the whipping began. Every crack of the whip she remembered seemed almost real, as if the sound was carrying through even the realm of her memories. That was not yet when the terror struck, however. Louise had steeled herself to carry out the whipping, to clearly assert her dominance (and, admittedly, to take out some of her frustrations) before moving on to explain the rules her new servant was to abide by. That plan had been torn apart faster than a defenseless baby boy set into a nest of orcs.

Because, at that moment, said servant began to react in a wholly unexpected way. He started _laughing. _Yes, laughing. Even through the pain, her familiar, which she had actually summoned, her first _success, _laughed at her. She was about to snap and lose it over that, but the vile thing did before her when blood was drawn.

She swore it was a daemon. Its tongue began twisting in impossible motions, and the walls followed, warping into alien geometries and spewing forth blood. Her vision had turned a deep scarlet, her peripherals swimming with innumerable shapeless horrors not meant for human sight. But, looking to the being which had brought that upon her now, it seemed as halcyon as a gentle breeze on a spring day as it snored softly away.

"_It_ _has to have been a nightmare_,_ it has to have been a nightmare, it has to have been a nightmare_." Louise began to silently repeat. Yes, a terrible night terror. That was all. It had to be. Because if it wasn't the Romalian Inquisition would- well, it's better not to go in detail. There was no way, she had to be a success! She was just being overly excited. She was no witch.

Now that she thought of it, there were some rather absurd details in the, yes, the nightmare (which it most certainly _was_). Like how she had managed to try to stammer out some manner of face-saving comment, "Y-your ma-m-ster i-is g.. going to re-retire. Don'tmistakemylenienceforweakness!" before practically flying into the bed, which she cowered on even now. Or how Kirche had knocked on the door, hearing the commotion and lustfully asking, "Ooh, just what is going on there? Sounds like that boy is a real _daemon_ in bed."

Louise chuckled softly at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation, a look of fear still splayed across her face. She had yelled back to Kirche in a way that was feverishly at the time but still mustering anger, and then her familiar had begun to excitedly jump about, celebrating and "savoring" her "delicious rage."

Then the ordeal ended as abruptly as it began when her familiar dropped to the floor like a brick, making a sickening _crunch _on impact. Presumably, this is when it went to sleep. Or was simply too exhausted to continue.

The sleeping familiar turned over and Louise jumped out of her skin.

_"Ha. No need to be uneasy, geez Louise_..."

Completely, completely absurd. Absolutely. So Louise picked herself up from her bed, composed her nerves, and walked over to the slumbering creature. It continued dozing, unaware of the world at large or the fuchsia-haired female above him.

Louise pulled together all her courage and poked it tentatively with her wand, increasing the motion in frequency and power as the creature before did not respond...

... And Saito awoke to being prodded at. He stuck open an eye and shifted slightly while groaning, and thus inadvertently maneuvered himself into an... unfortunate position. He screamed in pain as the prodding object- the polished stick which served as Louise's wand- stabbed him right in his right eyeball. For a brief moment, everything in the room stood completely silent and still.

Rising up, Saito proceeded to flail about the unfamiliar room and cry out from the fiery sensation of relentless, hammering agony. Through all this, Louise simply stood dumbfounded as her dormitory was wrecked by the stampeding boy.

After a good five seconds or so passed in this manner, Saito clocked straight on, at breakneck speed, into Louise. He continued his screaming, completely unaware of the minuscule girl beneath him as he writhed in sheer torment from his punctured eye.

Kirche approached from the hallway, and curiously noted that she could hear something faintly sounding through the well-designed walls of Louise's quarters.

It was at this point Kirche decided to open the door using a spell, ostensibly on an unannounced visit for maximum annoyance to her rival, but also now in order to sate her curiosity on the noises, along with the mystery of how she had been unable to affect the boy earlier with levitation.

Surveying the scene ahead of her, she saw that the bed had been completely wrecked, the room was in a total mess, and that the aforementioned boy Louise had summoned was atop her, screaming in what was probably ecstasy as he ground repeatedly against her. There was even some blood running in-between them.

Kirche drew her own conclusions on the scene before her, flashed a knowing grin to the visibly struggling Louise, and shut the door slowly.

[/]

The healer looked upon the wounded commoner, and, to his credit, only raised an eyebrow. He was used to wounded students or staff coming due to the young noble woman, _Lauren _or _Lily _or whatever it was, causing grievous injuries that somehow always proved to be nonfatal. The infirmary was therefore provided with a constant stream of incoming bodies.

Only they were always only harmed indirectly. They would come in, singed and blackened from the ever-recurring explosions. Their lungs would be filled with soot, a persistent cough would overtake them. He kept his skills sharp excising all that debris, day after thankless day.

But this, this boy who had just been brought in- there were none of the usual symptoms. Instead, he was covered from head to toe in a collection of pulsating welts. There was also telltale signs that he was whipped and also savagely beaten, likely pummeled repeatedly by someone's fists; several teeth were missing. And, to top it all off, his eye had been... _stabbed._ That was the only way to aptly describe it.

_"Clearly, he was beaten intentionally," _he thought, "_and I do pity the poor fellow, this poor fellow, who had the misfortune of being summoned as _her_ familiar. There is nothing we can do for him now, being her property and all." _News spread fast through the campus, and it spread especially fast to the infirmary when it pertained to one certain short-packed headache of a girl.

He looked up from the boy and to the girl who had brought him in. "_Yes, that is interesting as well. She brought him in personally, with only that maid to help her."_

Breaking out of those thoughts, he did hazard a question to the pink, work-load-increasing teen pain-machine. "This may take quite some time. I do not care to inquire as to how these injuries were acquired, but, are you going to stay in order to await his... regaining of consciousness?"

"No! That is what this maid is here for. Maid! Inform me when he has awakened, and take him down to the courtyard."

She turned and left in a huff to contact other staff members to clean up her ruined room.

And with that, he started on his healing work in earnest. Surprisingly, it seemed quite easy. It didn't feel like his body was responding to his magic, but he knew it had to be working, because his wounds were rapidly sealing and reversing.

The runes upon the patient's hand were glowing but in a faint way, like they were not actually working entirely on their own and something else was using them. Most unusual that was. But, he was a healer and did not know of such things beyond the basics every mage would. Maybe he'd ask Colbert or another professor about that later. Mentally shrugging, he continued. And was shocked when the patient sat up groggily, somewhere in-between full awareness and the blackout of before.

The maid, who he had forgotten was present, sighed in relief. She was raven-haired, like the now recovered boy. "_Interesting colored hair. A lot of interesting developments today, actually_," the healer supposed.

"Well, it looks like I'm done here. Tell that to the young miss..." His voice trailed off; he did not personally care nor know what the noble-woman from earlier was named.

The healer turned and left, off to go back to a much-earned respite.

And that was how Saito awoke alone to a pretty girl with Japanese blood, in a fetishy maid outfit no less, watching over him.

Reaching a logical conclusion for a hormonal youth his age, he had assumed that she must like him in some way, what with her watching him in his sleep and all.

_「一度だけ生きる_」[(You) only live one time] Saito decided. Wait a moment, that was wrong.

He should be speaking French- which he somehow knew, for one reason or another. Wait another moment, French though, that was not something usual Japanese communities spoke in. So where was he? Ah yes, and how did he end up here anyways? Well, he remembered how he got into the infirmary at least (he shuddered a bit at that), but not exactly um, 'here' as in... this whacked out Hogwarts looking deal.

But then again, it seemed all his wounds inflicted by that pint-sized pinkie (weird hair as well, was he in an anime or something?) were gone, even the one involving a rather permanently damaged eye. So maybe that was a sign of it being a dream then, or magic in this Hogwarts was really... real. No, it couldn't be. It was definitely a dream on a sick bed. Why was he in a hospital then? What? The thoughts rushed through him, and he took a moment to calm himself.

He had to be in a coma or something similar. His body was naturally responding to his change in environments. He could see it now all so clearly as he retraced his steps.

The most recent event that seemed to be relevant was that green portal on the street back in Japan. There, he was violently pulled through it. That must have been him getting hit by a car or truck. Maybe with its brightest lights on. The imagery seemed to fit perfectly. Everything else that followed was probably some fevered dream of some sort. That made him shiver. Did that make him a masochist?

His thoughts were interrupted when the buxom maid who'd been watching him spoke up.

"Ano.. Mr. Familiar, I need to be take you down to Miss Vallière... I'm Siesta, by the way..." Shoot. She even made Japanese-like hesitation noises. What an uncreative mind he had._  
_

Well, there was a way to know answers that presented itself right here. If it was a coma-induced dream, nothing he'd do would matter anyways. And if it wasn't, he had had some thoughts to make a move directly before that panicking tangent of rational thought had worked its tendrils into him.

In one smooth motion, he simultaneously brought himself up and swept the unsure, innocent-looking maid off her feet. Holding her with one hand on the small of her back and another hand fluidly motioning through the air, Saito passionately began to speak.

"Please, _Siiiiiiesta_," he said, rolling his tongue seductively, "call me... _Saito Hiraga_. You _must_ to know my name... so you can moan it. _All day long_." His eyes twinkled and he gave a gentleman's wink at her.

"E-eeeeeeeeeh?!"

He brought his gesturing hand down on her and grabbed at her rather plump endowments.

It was around this precise moment that Louise decided to return, half-guilty for beating her familiar into an inch of its life. But, upon seeing what a _lecherous dog_ in pure heat stood before her, it was dictated such that any possibility of Louise feeling guilt anymore, or any possibly piteous and, indeed, non-malicious emotion towards her familiar evaporated, gone for all time. Or, at least her thought process worked something along those lines.

Pulling out a large whip normally that she just happened to carry on hand, she adopted her mantra which would be heard all too often today.

"YOU! YOU, YOU S-SA-SA-STUPPPPID DOG! I. HEARD. EVERYTHING!"

Saito knew at this point that, no, this was not some sort of dream. It had to be a nightmare. Either that_,_ or he'd been kidnapped to some grisly reality show parody of that _Courage the Cowardly Dog_ cartoon he'd seen on a visit to America once.

Neither option seemed to particularly appeal to him.

[/]

When Saito had returned to the land of the living from the brink of death the second time today, he resolved not to draw the ire of his apparent master ever again if possible. Dream or not, the pain was real.

Which brought him to the corollary that he should try to not to act so rashly in this world again. If the pain was real, dying would likely have a detrimental effect on his health in real life. And if it wouldn't, well, pain was not something he particularly cared to have more of anyways, no matter what masochist parts he might have deep within.

He'd only live through the world until the day was over and he'd be allowed to sleep. Sleep in a dream would probably bring him back to the world, he drew this conclusion from a doctor's book. A book whose name he didn't remember in spite of remembering its contents... Still, who was he to question doctors, the authoritative figure on what they do? A hope was a hope.

That also meant that, when Guiche challenged him to a duel, he had actually been trying to avoid something of that sort and doubled back in surprise. It had been less than two hours since the resolution of his to stay out of trouble.

"What?" he asked as if not hearing something right.

"Yes, you heard me, commoner! I, Guiche de Gramont, fourth son of General Gramont, challenge you to a duel!"

A quick mental recap on Saito's part was called for in order to identify where exactly he had failed so spectacularly in not-being-made a target...

After an all together mostly uneventful beating from his master, Saito lay sprawled on the ground in misery. Louise stormed off in a rage, as per usual.

"Today was supposed to be the day for masters to bond with familiars, but since you're such a _STUPID DOG _anyways, maybe you'll do better chasing a bone! Have fun with that cow maid!" She paused for a moment before slamming the door on her way out. "And no breakfast either!"

Louise wasn't exactly sure what she had to be angry about with Saito- as she had heard his name to be- pursuing a woman, but it really did piss her off. No wait, she hadn't even gotten through introductions and getting him into the role of doing her chores like laundry and he was already slacking off, perversely touching other women! Surely that was it.

Well, maybe some of it was nature taking over- Saito had been getting rather close to her back in her room, but it wasn't like she was going let her instincts control her. That was what separated dogs and people. She'd keep through with the punishment, he'd learn sooner or later. Then, once broken, she would assign his tasks.

Siesta looked sorry for his condition, even after he had so brazenly moved on her. "Saito? Are you okay? Perhaps we should go down to the infir- eh, call the healer in?"

"Naaaah, 's fine," Saito said through broken teeth and a dazed tone.

He abruptly stood up.

"Siesta. I am sorry for my very impolite behavior earlier. It was very unbecoming and rude of me." He bowed twice as he apologized as if formally to an elder in Japan. "I hope you can accept my apology."

He half-considered adding something like _I simply lost myself around one as beautiful as you _but it seemed his guts had left him after he decided to take this dream land seriously.

Siesta smiled at that.

"Apology accepted. But there is something you can help me with."

So then, there he was, serving cake and tea to a bunch of uptight, spoiled brats. It grated on his nerves rather quickly, but he had given his word to help Siesta.

Out of all of them, one of them was particularly annoying him, a blonde casanova by the name of Guiche. Possibly because it reflected on what he'd just tried to pull with Siesta.

Or maybe because he seemed to be the most conceited noble there, speaking in one tone of voice to the noble women in skirts, especially the one currently with him, but adopting some sort of detached authority with commoner servants.

"Pageboy, is my cake ready?"

"Right away, I'll bring it over now."

Saito brought the cake over to Guiche and overheard him talking to another blonde, likely one of his girlfriends. Emphasis on one, because Saito could clearly tell he had at least one other special someone. Everything Guiche was saying was overly histrionic and obviously insincere, and that rose was far too gaudy.

"Here you go," Saito said as he set down the cake.

"Ahhh, bring me seconds of tea, too," Guiche said with a snap of his fingers and flourish of his rose.

Saito obliged on that and began to leave to get a teapot.

"Your familiar spirit really resembles you in how cute you are," Guiche continued on with the other blonde, who was handling a small frog.

"You flatter me as always."

"I never lie to your eyes."

"But recently, I heard a rumor that you've started to date a first year."

As soon as he heard that, Saito perked up a bit and decided to see where this went.

There was a slight undercurrent of panic in Guiche's voice as he responded to the accusation.

"Ha? Nonsense. I never have a hidden side to my affection for you, Montmorency."

Montmorency seemed slightly mollified by that. Saito merely let out an _oh well _and walked off. As he headed off to the nearest tea cart he noticed a brunette in a brown cloak. She had a picnic basket in her hands and appeared to be looking for someone, peering about unsurely.

"Sir Guiche?" she asked to the air. "Where is he?"

"_Ah, yes, an opportunity_," Saito thought.

"Your Sir Guiche would be over there, Milady," Saito informed her with all the atmosphere of a doting servant, pointing to the table he was sharing with Montmorency.

Her face changed into elation.

"Sir Guiche!"

She ran over to Guiche. He almost shot off in response, but instead flung his hands up towards the sky before bringing them down in a peculiar shrug.

"Ah! Katie." There was delight on the surface with a connotation of fear in it.

"I've been looking for you, Sir Guiche!"

Montmorency sat up, taking an interest in this new girl.

"I thought I'd bring the soufflés I was talking about last night for tea time!"

Montmorency's eyes narrowed on Guiche, waiting for how he would respond.

"Ah... well, that's... I-"

"Last night?" Montmorency piped up in a cold tone, seeing Guiche had no meaningful opposition to what Katie had said.

Guiche turned to face Montmorency, "You see, I didn't, there was..." Guiche stammered on for a bit before stopping.

A small crowd, directed by a fat-looking blonde boy with an owl perched on his shoulder, had started milling about at the commotion.

Guiche collected himself and responded back. "What are you saying? Please, you ladies are getting the wrong idea!"

Even the naïve Katie seemed to be catching onto the idea that her dashing prince Guiche was not entirely faithful. So naturally, Montmorency skipped the finagling and slapped Guiche right in the face.

"The wrong idea for you, maybe! You said I was the only one." Montmorency let out a minor _hmmph _and left, turning her face off to the sky in scorn.

"W-what? Is this true... Guiche?" Katie screeched pointlessly before also slapping Guiche.

"_Wow, didn't think she had it in her_," Saito observed while laughing to Guiche's misfortune with the rest of the crowd.

"_That was a nice diversion, at least. I guess I was supposed to be being quiet, but that was great putting his royal arrogance into his place. Besides, what's that blondie going to do, challenge me to a duel? All I did was direct Katie to him. He doesn't look like he could fight worth anything anyways._"

Guiche now lay on the grass humiliated, two red, hand-shaped marks adorning his face. He had played everything so well, but even then had understood that reality that he might still have had his womanizing ways catch up to him. But, he would not stand for a commoner committing such affronts to him! Laughing to his face over his misfortune! This was about something bigger than women now; it was about his honor as a noble.

He could simply have the pageboy's head cut for such impudence, but decided that he would demand satisfaction in a duel. A bigger spectacle would also serve to deflect from his rejection by two women at once.

Standing up, Guiche pointed to Saito and asserted himself: "Looks like you don't know what manners you should show towards aristocrats."

"...What, what'd I do, laugh at you? And aristocrats? Haven't had those for hundreds of years where I come from." Saito pondered that for a moment. If there still aristocrats, where or when was he? No modern country he knew of had nobility with power, so this hospitalized hallucination he was experiencing was really getting interesting. He hoped that it would end soon before things continued to spiral downwards.

Saito stopped his thoughts to listen to what Guiche would say. Guiche ignored Saito's musings aloud about aristocrats and skipped directly to the chase.

"You, a mere commoner, insulted me, and, above all, made two ladies cry. I demand satisfaction and challenge you to a duel!"

Which brought Saito back to the present after a brief _what _and affirmation of what was said by Guiche.

So, a duel though. Saito weighed his options. Back home, teachers and even his parents had always thought him to be a bit slow due to his abysmal grades and generally slovenly way he went about life.

In truth, however, he was only a tad lazy and liked to take his time to think out things. Or, at least that's what he told himself. His mind had been operating in overdrive since arriving in this land, past the abilities he naturally should have.

He could simply reject the duel. But, if the nobility had teeth here, he was sure Guiche would do... something unpleasant... about that. That was if he was to ignore how it'd make him look like a coward, of course. Not that Saito was ever one to care much about things like that, really. Why was that even brought into his mind?

The other option was to go along with the duel. Considering the presence of a higher political class and the rustic, medieval environment he'd seen, it'd be fought with swords. Or an early firearm, but that wasn't too likely given how crude and thus ineffective for a one-on-one duel they would be. Either way, he didn't how to do that.

The elephant in the room was the possibility of magic _(or maybe it was just his mind going all screw-loose and altering the dream_?), silly as that sounded. He had to give the concept credence. So far, he had reached this strange fantasy land through unknown means, had impossible wounds healed, and even now saw sights like an honest-to-Earth giant mole or floating eyeball, and many other animals obeying the people here.

And what if the magic complemented the previously raised firearms point? By the comparative tech level he'd noted, the guns would be crude- but if magic was present, all bets were off. Alchemy or something of the sort could raise primitive hand cannons to the point of fine pistols fit to duel with, negating the need for a better industrial base.

Any way he could analyse it, Saito could still not see how he could fight. It'd been short-sighted to laugh even a little at Guiche; those ladies hit him but he did not need to show visible hysterics at the moment. No point dwelling on that now though.

Part of him strangely was itching to go ahead and fight in the duel against all logic.

Before he could figure how to respond, Guiche did for him with a point of his rose.

"You'd better be ready for this. I'll wait for you at the Vestry field." Guiche paused for a moment. "And if you don't come, I'll assume you've forfeited the duel and thus, your life."

Inside, Saito shivered from fear. It was clearly to the death then, too. But the fear came not from Guiche's implicit threat. He felt something deep and primal stir inside him. It whispered to him, willing him to the duel.

"_Sssssaito, let me free. You will win this... duel_."

He knew that, if he did let it loose, there would indeed be a death on the Vestry field, and it would not be his.

[/]

In spite of it all, Saito now stood before Guiche on the field. Sizing up Guiche, he noted no apparent weapons other than the rose, and so had to realize that magic was going to be the deciding factor. "_Damn_..." If it had come down to a sword fight, dirt could have been tossed into Guiche's eyes.

He hoped that those strange looking symbols tattooed on his arm (well, he wasn't sure if it was tattooed, it already looked to be fading incrementally) could be of some help. Maybe they were a sign he was of the capacity to wield magic as well. Or maybe, since this did seem to be a school, Guiche wouldn't be using magic anyways, being too novice to rely on it. The rose was just used for poking, like that pink girl had done this morning. On second thought, he'd take some deadly magic over that.

Then, speak of the devil, his master from earlier had run up and quashed his hopes. She dragged him aside and berated him.

"What do you think you are doing, accepting a duel?! Go apologize to Guiche, right now! He might still forgive you."

"I can't do that. I'd be completely at his mercy. He already said, or implied I suppose, he'd take my life if I weren't up for it."

Louise sighed and shook her head. "You don't get it, do you? You can't win. You're a plebeian and he's an aristocrat. If you're at his mercy, you at least might be spared on that he might not kill you."

"So? We're both still human, and it doesn't look like that playboy's ever been in a fight. I'm not going to toss away my life like that."

"_So, _it means he can use magic, and _you can't_! You won't stand a chance!"

"Tch. Well why do you care anyways? You've already nearly killed me twice. Guiche will only be doing so once, and he'll probably make sure it really does finish me." Saito's speech seemed to get passive-aggressive when panicking.

"You idiot! It's not like I care about you, but you're my familiar spirit and I can't let you die!" She punched him on the shoulder.

"Then I'll take care that are no deaths." As he said this, Saito's voice became cold and distant, as if he was not entirely present.

Guiche had heard the entire exchange.

"It was unwontedly brave of you to come. However, I see you mean something to Louise. I would hate to see a woman cry, so you can give up now and I'll let you off easy."

Saito stood impassively as Louise ran up to Guiche. She attempted to appeal that duels were forbidden, but Guiche shot back that was only in the case between aristocrats.

Whatever the case was, the duel began.

A single rose petal fell gracefully to the ground. In a flash of light, it was replaced by a large, imposing metal figure.

"My name is Guiche the Bronze. Therefore, a bronze Valkyrie will be your opponent." Guiche said, a visible smirk showing.

To Guiche's surprise, Saito sprinted up to the golem, smashed into it savagely with his bare hands, and wrenched the spear out, finishing the golem by hitting several times with the shaft until the golem broke apart. Guiche had not even had time to give orders.

Guiche, seeing that, took Saito more seriously. Both Louise and the crowd also had not expected a display of martial prowess from Saito, either. Tabitha lowered her book ever-so-slightly, intent on observation.

A look of determination worn on his face, Guiche summoned up seven more golems with a sweep of his rose.

They immediately moved for Saito. Saito fought like a man possessed, sweeping around their blows, turning their own spears on themselves, punching, kicking, stabbing, and fighting far better than he had any right to.

The first three golems to approach found Saito side step their blows and destroy them methodically. Golem one was thrown aside with a casual punch and then grapple into the next approaching golem; golem two rent in half by a rapid succession of spear cuts as it threw off golem one; golem three smashed with the broken stem of what was once a spear.

But Guiche was no fool. He saw that the battle was not going in his favor. In desperation, he attempted to levitate Saito. When the only response was the feeling that Saito's toe lifted awkwardly, Guiche sent the remaining golems in order to buy time.

Saito fought heedless of Guiche, giving in to the call of battle. Golem after golem fell in sort order. Only three remained.

During this time, Guiche did not sit idle. He was a coward, but this served only to accelerate his thinking in battle. Instead of sallying forth to face Saito, he was summoning up one more golem. Calling upon all his remaining reserves of willpower, he levitated it and flung it at Saito with as much power as he could muster.

It hit him. It truly did. The golem-projectile was damaged beyond repair, but Saito went down, and the two golems remaining stood by him, spears poised. One other golem held Saito roughly. Guiche walked over in triumph.

"-That... t-that was without honor..." Saito sounded off in clear pain but also in a disturbingly otherworldly voice.

"I only did what was fair. It's within the bounds of the mage to use their magic, after all."

He smirked and turned away from Saito, one of his hands already moving about the air in gesticulating arcs.

"Now, I will consider letting you free. You only must say these two words: 'I apologize.'"

When there was no response in words but a bestial, resounding roar and the noise of broken bronze, Guiche gulped and turned back.

If the fear that Guiche had felt before when he saw his golems easily fall was a stream, then the fear Guiche felt now was a raging, torrenting river. He frantically looked about, realizing that only he saw what Saito had become. Was he imagining things then? A trick of the treasonous mind played in jest of himself despite the moment of triumph he was having? Or an ability added to the familiar when the runes were engraved?

Where Saito once stood, there was a monstrous, towering inferno of a creature from the depths of Hell itself. Its fierce red skin, burning eyes, carnivorous jaw, and terrible horns spoke of only war. Its towering form, in conjunction with a pair of massive, leathery wings, stood and cast a shadow of death greater than Guiche's body by several orders of magnitude. At the ends of its clawed hands, there was respectively an impossibly large whip and equally imposing battleaxe. And it gazed down solely at Guiche, raised its whip and roared.

"...Oh, Brimir... no..."

Whatever it was, it seemed real enough to Guiche. In sheer, abject terror Guiche began to run around in circles, screaming for mercy. He ran fast as a man who has abandoned all notions save the prehistoric desire to live only could. Pushing aside the confused crowd (for they still only saw Saito, albeit an unnaturally reinvigorated one), he ran and he ran and he ran, heedless of everything. Such carelessness caused him to run straight into a stone wall and fall backwards into the grass.

Tabitha began to take her leave as she always did when another classmate was doing something embarrassing, usually Louise before a major explosion.

Louise almost slapped herself in the face at Guiche's fall, remembering how much of that she'd experienced the day before.

The daemon swung its whip at the pathetic mortal which had drawn its ire, and with cowardly sorcery no less! In one stroke, Guiche's arm was torn off. The crowd began to back away fearfully at the boy mercilessly tearing off Guiche's arm with what they saw were his bare hands. Even Tabitha turned around to witness the gory development.

Everything hung thick for a moment before Louise's voice broke in. "Saito! What are you doing?! It's over!"

Saito craned his neck and looked over at his master. He seemed to be struggling inside, his eyes burning with an ethereal blue flame that flickered on and off. For the tiniest fraction of a second, Louise saw through to his true form.

But she had conviction in herself, casting aside fear by the same steel she had shown both before and at the summoning ceremony. Unnaturally bloodthirsty and terrifying he appeared, but dragons were always like that early on. Actually Saito appeared to be something far worse- but Louise steeled herself nonetheless.

"You said you'd be sure there would be no deaths!"

Those words seemed to bring Saito back to reality.

"Huh? I-"

Then Saito collapsed onto the ground.

His thoughts came up to him in a half-second before blackness flooded his vision.

_"Not how I thought I'd get to sleep. It works though_."

[/]

When Saito awoke, the first thing he noticed were the moons outside of the windows. They danced so vividly above him, their blue and red forms swirling and coalescing in a symphony of colors. He could have stared at them all night.

"_So that's it then. I guess I won't be going home if I just woke up here again_."

It almost felt like he could reach up and grab the moons. Something about it told him this world could not be a dream. Louise spoke up from several feet away sitting at a desk, putting a stop to his sky-gazing.

"Saito... What did you do?" Her voice was shaky but her expression hard.

Saito himself was not sure. He had let something dark inside him overtake him, and it almost killed his opponent. He had seen himself turn into a hellish monstrosity, ten meters and straight out of the Western New Religions. The thought that that was him put the sensation of fear back into him, alongside a very disturbing notion that some part of him would have enjoyed it. Even now there was a slight urge to destroy everything around him; to grab the throat of anybody near and tear it out.

But, he had regained control at the last moment, the aid of this girl's words allowing him to be put back in the driver's seat over... whatever had emerged from him. At the very least, he was not a murderer. He could keep the urges under control, for now.

Looking frankly towards Louise, Saito noticed how beautiful she was in the moonlight. Her tiny, lithe form coupled with the melancholy gaze on her face was getting to him- but instead it came on in a feeling of the need to protect, rather than ravish.

Picking himself up from the bed, he spoke.

"I don't know what I did. But I know it was not me."

"Then what was it?"

He searched himself for a while, not sure of how to respond. "I think it'd be best to start from the beginning. We haven't even introduced ourselves."

Louise nodded and agreed.

"Very well. I am Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Explain who you are."

Saito explained himself from start to finish. About how he had a family, his friends, his homeland, and how it was a bore but something he had realized he enjoyed still when he ended up in this land. He hesitated for a moment on the subject of his losing control of himself during the battle, but told it anyways. He left out how he had seen himself become a towering abomination though.

Louise was silent throughout. She spoke when it came her turn. She told of her family, her struggles with magic, and how she came to receive the moniker of Zero. Some anger did seep through, even though she tried to restrain it.

She told not of her various insecurities; her lack of friends, the pain of failure constantly eating at her, or anything of the like. But Saito saw underneath the tough exterior she displayed to the world, and realized through and through that Louise had her issues as well.

Saito was not a stellar student back in Japan. The subject matter here might be different, but he could understand where Louise was coming from.

So he walked up and hugged her. Not a word was spoken, and Louise did almost yelp in surprise. Slowly, she gauchely returned the embrace, and took comfort in its warmth.

No further conversation was held on the violent conclusion to the day's duel. An implicit understanding had been formed. Tomorrow would wait.

Saito, the lost boy who never proved himself above average in anything, always coasting along in life. In the course of one day, he had almost violated the greatest moral constraint that had guided him along in his previous society. And now he was in an alien land, not sure of how to proceed and only partially sure any of this was really and truly happening. And not even in full control of his own body, fearing the depths of himself; something that stood above all else. The only thing he had now was this small girl in front of him.

Louise, the supposedly-noble girl who was never able to cast a proper spell. Even her familiar was completely clueless, and possibly a danger to the very world. Like many teenagers, she didn't know what she was going to do at this point in her life, and the weight of the world was crushing down on her shoulders. In her case, more profoundly than others.

They may each have been failures, but they would be failures together.

[/]

_When Saito went to sleep that night, the dreams returned. Unwelcome visions plagued him like locusts in harvest season._

_He walked down a long corridor. Images of his family washed by, a faint and indistinct J-pop tune playing in the background. Every time he tried to look closer, the images would seem to hide or fade into nothingness._

_At_ _the end of the corridor, the music wound down until there was silence. There were two blank canvasses on the dead-end wall before him._

_While examining this curiosity, the song started once again. Only now there was something distinctly wrong about it. A drum line too loud here, a voice out of tune there. Saito backed away and tried to turn around, but found walls on all sides. The music worsened and was soon nothing but inhuman, terrifying shrieks_.

_His thoughts earlier when gazing at the moons or in the infirmary seemed to come to a fore. This was not a dream. He was stuck in a nightmare and could not wake up._

_So he tossed and turned uneasily throughout the night on his freshly-ordered cot, emulating his master, who was fearing what exactly she had summoned._

* * *

**Author's Post-Story Ramblings**

*******preamble in a portmanteau with ramble, get it? ahaha, I'll show myself out**

A(n) (not-so) important thing to note is that this update was originally a lot more words. Goddamn website seems to have eaten about a thousand words, meaning I don't have over 9,000 words now. Most of this update was typed on a mobile phone/smartphone/cellular device/whatever they're called too, so this pissing me right off.

If any of you lot have questions like "Eh why is Saito not acting like a dumbass ecchi protagonist" or "Hey Louise is not tsundere all day every day" or something similar, hold off until you see the next chapter. It will answer those questions.

Or give those critiques anyways.

It's good to criticise and ask questions in the reviews. Don't stop nitpicking, if I've given off the impression I don't like it. It keeps the author sharp, especially when grammar is the main focus and not the story-line. This website is fan fiction and not published, so we're all here to improve writing; it's not serious business. A writer should be able to dissect everything they write and put three sentences behind every sentence written, but a fresh pair of eyes is always better. And besides that point, I've already failed the audience if I've had to personally explain the story. A good joke needs no explanation.

**#Uh**, if anyone doesn't like the disclaimers, you can just skip 'em. They're good for me to look at and laugh and warm me up for typing out the story.

_"He had seen himself turn into a hellish monstrosity, ten meters and straight out of the Western New Religions." _New Religions is any religion that's arrived in Japan after 1800. So stuff like Catholicism.

Yeah, the tone in this story changes without warning. The anime did that a lot too, look at how you'd have most of the season be filler and then rush in some terrible, terrible evil without build-up (Zero no Tsukaima F is the most jarring example of this). Mr. Yamaguchi (may his memory live on) doing it is no excuse for me though, he had cancer which caused him to rush, so rage at me if you want.

Next chapter is titled "Communions with the Divine."


	3. ACT I CHAPTER III

**The Disclaimer**

"I know the President said 'By any means,' but are you sure about this?" the uneasy government spook asked while suppressing fidgets.

"Lieutenant, if I'd think there's any other way, I'd take it. There isn't. He's the best in the business, and you're just going to have to work with his... _eccentricities," _the older agency member insisted.

They had come here to take the greatest asset they had for the situation out of his home... his home in the federal super-ultra-gamma-beta-theta-cero-oh-charlie-mega-hotel-delta-foxtrot designation prison. It was normally reserved for aliens, psychics, and alien psychics, but they made an exception for one man. The man they were about to meet.

The younger G-man opened the door and presented a document to the asset. Putting a voice of all business, he addressed the exception; that one man. The hacker known only as Cypher. "You have four hours. Otherwise, the President goes to the nuclear option. Will you help us?"

The hacker only looked and smirked. "You guys must be pretty hard up if you're asking me. I do suppose I don't have much of a choice, however, do I?"

Three hours, fifty-nine minutes, and fifty seconds and many lines of indiscernable code involving digitial attack-signatures typed up while the hacker fast-talked nonsense to the federal agents later, he hacked into the data-core mainframe through an exploit in the dynamic link library of the encryption shield's remote info-server and began uploading his home-brewed retro-variable transpecific cyber-stringic nano-encoding cloud virus.

The large series of monitors and mess of pizza boxes lying around were met by the glow of "ACCESS GRANTED."

The hacker leaned back, placed his hand on the button on his attached headset, and spoke.

"I'm in," he said smugly in spite of the beads of cold sweat running down his face, "and with time to spare. Now... school's in session. Time to teach a little something about copyright law- the Cypher way."

Then something new flashed on the screen.

**TRANSMISSION FAILURE. DISCLAIMER DETECTED.**

* * *

**"What is the terror of death? ****That we die with our work incomplete! ****What is the joy of life? ****To die knowing our task is done!"**

-Dark Angels battle prayer

* * *

**Chapter 3- Communions with the Divine**

_During the duel_

The daemon clawed away at the bounds of the Immaterium. It could sense great power had made itself known on a distant planet. This great power, the bloodletter sensed it in battle now. A battle he was not in.

It had to be in the battle, it had to join the fray at once. Mustering the strength only the servants of Khorne could, the bloodletter smashed its way into the realm of mortals.

It manifested quite some distance off from the Greater Daemon currently battling. So the Lesser Daemon naturally began to march towards the beacon of might.

But then the beacon faded. The bloodletter suddenly found itself with no direction. It turned away to strike off in its own path, to do as it knew and slaughter in Khorne's name.

It soon reached a settlement of pitiful humans. It would slake its need for blood here.

If it had looked or listened carefully, its daemonic mind could have easily comprehended the writing or chatter around and noticed that it was at the estate of one Count Mott of the Wave, messenger to the Tristain royal palace.

But it cared not for such thinking. It was no Bloodthirster; no great general and thinker in His armies, it was a foot soldier to Khorne and would do as it knew best and kill.

It warped through the unimpressive gates of the mansion that blocked its way. Teleportation through the Warp was unusually draining on its connection to the world but spilling of blood would rectify that. Once inside, it would set anything it could to the sword.

The Slaughter-kin loosed the battle-cry which had sundered countless worlds: "_KILL_! _FOR KHORNE_!

Caught up in bloodlust, the bloodletter rushed head-long into a group of humans doing their best to imitate true battle and began putting its Hellblade to use.

Count Mott sat in his chambers, enjoying a cup of hot tea to warm himself up for the day. He was feeling that the particular mistress he was on was going to give out soon, probably today if he really worked at it. Then he'd have to get another.

"_Well, I'll probably just grab the most alluring of the servants when I stop by the Academy to announce the Princess' coming to the exhibition. It's a shame though, I was liking this one toy I'm on, too bad she lacks endurance_._ But then again, if my toys never broke, I wouldn't be able to get new ones._.."

He sat for a while longer, sipping at the tea and relaxing. Some noise came from the courtyard below.

"_KILL! FOR CORN...!" _a harsh, almost bestial voice sounded from below.

"_What was that? Eh, probably just the guards having the villagers fight for nourishment again._"

Suddenly, the door was thrown open.

"Count Mott! We were just having the villagers participate in a deadly tournament for food! But then, then this old man in a hood comes along and h-he just started stabbing _everyone, _includ-!"

"-What? That's wonderful. He'll be our next representative at the gladiator underground meeting. Thank you for bringing this up to me. So, he must really like corn though. Probably worships it or something. When you have him fight, reward him with corn in commensurate amounts to his performance."

The guards had been carefully conditioned, on the pain of death via an attached kill-switch spell, not to interrupt Mott's musings in any way. Ironically, this spell which had served to silence many others would soon prove the fatal mistake for Mott.

"But sir, he was killing everyone, including us! You must leave at onc-!" The guard was cut off (somewhat literally) as a blade struck through his armor effortlessly, impaling his heart and then cutting its way up through the armor and lopping his head off with a splash of gore.

Mott spit out his tea at the grisly death of the guard, reaching quickly for his wand. The old man he saw kill the guard was daemonically fast, even when carrying a blade nearly three-fourths of his size. And then Mott found himself without a head, like many of his discarded play-things and the guard from moments before.

The killer did not stay for much longer. Though the spilt blood had kept it in existence long enough to slay the accursed sorcerer, it could feel its tether to the world weakening, and, with a violent cry, it was dragged back to the hell from whence it came.

[/]

"Really now?" the healer asked incredulously, failing for once to keep the exasperation out of his voice.

Yesterday, he'd been trying to peacefully catch some sleep, which he never seemed to get enough of, when Headmaster Osmond had had a servant sent to his quarters.

"Pardon me Monsieur Merek Constant de Arenberg, you are-"

Opening the door and already feeling quite a bit annoyed, he had emotionlessly intoned to the servant that he would be down to the infirmary immediately, not even bothering to listen to the servant's message before slamming the door shut.

When he had dressed and reached the infirmary, he had seen the worst injury in this supposedly-easy job of a school yet. The patient, one blonde noble with look of a natural lady-killer, had his arm torn off. Yes, his _actual fucking_ _arm_.

What the void? And he was the only person on staff with he ability to heal this kid? They'd even managed to keep the arm-less wonder-boy on ice with water magic, but they couldn't heal him on their own? Everyone other than him at this school was a load of incompetent pricks. Which was, to be frank, a very scary thought considering how he wasn't exactly a magical prodigy either; he was a square, but just barely so! Was Tristain really in such hard times now?

Such thoughts had no place when there was an immediate crisis to attend to, however. Turning his full attention to the wounded boy, he set about healing him, first applying some light fire magic to melt the ice covering preventing him from bleeding out. He needed to get a better look. And when he did...

He knew his work was cut out for him, the depressing fact beginning to weigh him down even as he directed assistants to gather his tools.

It had been exhausting. He worked and worked on the boy, casting spell after spell in an attempt to save his life. Water spells, earth spells, even some wind spells had drained his willpower. At several points, he was sure the young noble would die from blood loss. But the boy's sheer determination to live carried through even in his unconscious state; the pompish fool probably thought he was too important to die. Constant had to admire that a little bit.

So slowly he brought the blonde boy back to life. Eventually, Constant reached the conclusion that he wouldn't die; his condition was stabilized.

And it was then that strawberry-blonde girl and the boy she'd been beating on decided to barge in.

Now, he was told by them they were the cause of this. That was where is _really now _of exasperation had shown through.

He'd been up all night working to save this boy. And it was because of them. Familiars really did take after their summoners; he'd have two heaps of trouble-making on hand from his point on.

"_A duel, a Founder-damned duel. Why didn't they show up earlier then? Just what the hell were they doing that was so important that they'd wait a day after the frickin' arm-ripping-off to show up out of concern?! If they're gonna not care, at least be consistent about it! And Old Osmond, that stupid lech. Letting this happen? Tristain hasn't fallen on hard times. This school must only have it hard up due to the rampant incompetence."_

As if reading his mind, or only seeking to justify obvious misgivings, the boy spoke up.

"I was in my rights for what I did, it was a duel to the death, and Guiche had initiated, even." The girl elbowed him without subtlety. "But... is there any way we can help him?"

The middle-aged man sighed.

"There is nothing of substance to be done at this point in time. His condition is secure, yet it looks to be that he has assuredly lost that limb for his lifetime. It is beyond the scope of my abilities to safely restore it." There was a _tsk_ noise, then the healer continued. "That is, unless any of you could possibly land your hands on a Water Spirit Tear or the bark of a Living Tree. Any of those items could boost my prowess long enough for an operation."

They looked to each other and made some strange_ un _noise.

"_O_,_ schiesse. If only I could take that back._" No, the healer quickly retracted his thought of retracting his statement. "_But... if they got themselves killed while questing... maybe I wouldn't have to deal with the casualties they'd most definitely cause in the future."_

"Alright then, I suppose you wish to ascertain as to wherein you would obtain such items?"

"No thank you, I do already know. The Water Spirit is in Lagdorian Lake at the border with Gallia. A Living Tree has not be sighted in thirty years, so it would be infeasible to get the bark." She nodded, proud, for once, of the fact she concentrated on theory and general knowledge due to her lack of talent. With that, the healer found himself nodding as well, but in surprise.

"If you do not have any more business here, then you should depart forthwith. I am still of use here. The patient has not yet regained a state of consciousness, and I also must properly check up on the detached limb to see if it has been stored in a satisfactory manner."

So Louise and Saito left the infirmary, speaking as Louise walked with her familiar along the halls of the Academy.

"Louise, I think it's up to us to get the Tear. It's too late for us to have prevented... what I did, but we can make it better in this way."

"That's right. That's why we're going to Montmorency's room," Louise responded after waving down a servant to ask for directions.

"Eh? Why?"

"I'm sure you heard it was a Water Spirit Tear that we were going for," Louise explained as if to a small child. "Montmorency's family has a contract with the Water Spirit, and she has a personal interest in getting Guiche healed. We won't have to go buy a Tear then. They're very rare, and I don't have much to spend right now. Plus, there's no guarantee they'd even be on the market."

"Are you sure about that part of her helping? She was kind of angry at Guiche's two-timing."

"Of course. They fight often, but she probably didn't want to see something as bad as... what you did... happen."

Silence hung over them from the second indirect mention of the yesterday's duel. They had both reached the conclusion to let that nest of orcs lie momentarily.

When they reached Montmorency's quarters, both discreetly let out sighs of relief. Louise resolved that they'd talk again once traveling. Last night's little heart-to-heart was melodramatically touching but unproductive. She'd let it get to her. Hadn't her mother taught her to show steel? Yes, after a long night's lucubration, she had made up her mind to steel herself.

Louise rapped sharply twice on Montmorency's door.

"Montmorency! Open up. I have to speak to you about Guiche."

"And what does the Zero Louise want?" The voice answering was insincere and weak.

The door creaked up ever-so-slightly. Montmorency's face poked out for a moment, then retreated.

"Keep that thing away," Montmorency rasped while looking to Saito.

"Saito's a person, you know," Louise answered, annoyed in spite of her previous opinions of but a day before being mirrored by Montmorency's current ones.

Montmorency started closing the door.

"Maybe he does have some _problems_, though. Saito, go down to the stables and wait there. If you're not sure on directions, ask a servant."

Saito left without a word. There was a lull in the conversation.

"Well Montmorency? Are you going to let me in or not?"

Once inside, Louise had a better look at Montmorency's face. It was not looking too well. She was haggard and had dark circles underneath her eyes. Her room seemed recently messy, as if someone had torn through it in a frenzy looking for something.

"What makes you think I care about that lying bag-of-air Guiche?

"Cut the act, Montmorency. I know you would be happy to see him harmed, but not so much. Not seriously."

"_Well, that had to have hit a mark_." Montmorency didn't respond.

"I assume you know of Guiche's condition?"

Montmorency nodded. "I couldn't bring myself down to the infirmary to check again on him this morning. Did he make it?"

"Yes, he is alive currently. However, it seems the healer lacks something essential: a Water Spirit Tear."

Montmorency's eyes widened.

"And you want me to get that?"

"That's the gist of it, unless you want Guiche to go one arm down for the rest of his life. Which I'm sure you don't."

"All right, I'll come."

"Good. Meet us at the eastern shores of Lagdorian Lake in a day. We'll go there and be back before the familiar exhibition."

[/]

Kirche von Anhalt-Zerbst, at this point, was filled with a burning passion for one male: Saito Hiraga. After seeing him win that duel so handily, her admittedly lax standards had readily accepted him.

Now she stood at the door to Tabitha's chambers, knocking frantically. Tabitha noticed via a spell she had cast to serve as an alarm on the door, but did not move anyways. She lifted one of her hands and used it to open a book.

"Not locked," Tabitha said, and before a half-second had passed Kirche pushed her way into the room.

"Tabitha! Tabby! _Tabby! _My heart has been captured by the most dashing, handsome man in this Academy! Oh what beautiful hair! Slim form! Exotic eyes! I don't think I've ever loved before! You have to help me win his love!"

"_Get to the point_." Tabitha said by flipping the page. "Today is Void Day."

"Yes, I know how important Void Day is to you! But I need your dragon to help me find true love! I found out he's going on a trip with that Zero Louise, and I was already planning to get to him. My heart couldn't take another delay, your dragon is the only way to keep up with them!"

Tabitha lowered her book. "Who?"

"E-eh? Louise and that, oh, that Sigh-toe boy. Louise's familiar."

Tabitha raised her book once again. "Arm," was all she stated.

"Exactly! Yes! I know! It takes a real man to have such strength, did you see the way he beat Guiche? He's a man I could _use."_

Tabitha put down her book. "OK." _Psychopath _was unstated but she seemed to have a way with saying words without moving her mouth. Kirche pretended not to notice.

It took a bit, but Tabitha had caved. They'd follow Saito on Sylphid. Tabitha did admit she was a little curious to observe the boy again for purposes of gathering intelligence.

With a whistle, she called for Sylphid from the nearby forest.

[/]

Louise met Saito down at the stables. Together they saddled a horse and rode off.

"So I take it Montmorency is not traveling with us out of fear of me?" Saito asked in a knowing tone.

"Part of it is that, but part of it is that we have to stop somewhere else first."

"And where's that?"

"Well, you did fight properly without a weapon. But it'd still be better to have one though. I think it would help to not to have to take others'. So we're going to a weapons shop in Tristainia."

"Okay, that sounds fair," Saito agreed. "Nothing else, then."

"Wait a moment, Saito. I don't think last night's discussion was too productive."

"Oh." Saito didn't show anything in his voice.

"I know all about the, uh, Toukyou place you came from. I trust in that at least. The thing is, I'm pretty sure not everyone turns into hulking daemonic beasts. You didn't just lose control of yourself; something took control of you."

"Oh... you saw?" He sounded half-surprised, but half-not. "Well, then, doesn't Halkeginia have dragons and the lot? I'd think-"

"-No. There was something inherently wrong about you. You radiated death, carnage, and wholesale destruction. You were like something out of ancient legend or man's darkest fears; something terrible that'd strike fear into the stoutest man," she spoke seriously, like delivering a pre-prepared noble's speech.

"What are you going to do then?" Saito responded in an almost blasé way.

"I don't think you're a monster, no. You did spare Guiche's life in the end. We're going to visit a priest as soon as possible to set things right. We'll do that before going to get a weapon."

Saito held back his thoughts that this would do nothing good. He couldn't just reject it however, there was always a possibility, however small, his daemons could be exorcised by magic.

Louise, for her part, had her own thoughts that only judgment and death would come. The Church would surely (and rightfully) find fault with Saito. She would, as well, be executed for summoning such a horror. But her world and her honor as a noble demanded it.

There was a small chance she would come out alive, and better for it... But it surely wasn't about to a Zero like her.

Surprisingly, Saito spoke up after the dour exchange. "I'd like to know a bit more about magic here. What exactly does it mean to be your familiar, as you said on the field with Guiche?"

"Well, a familiar spirit is bound to serve their master."

"And how is it made sure those animals- such as the dragon, don't do something contrary, like run away?" Saito had almost slipped up and said _kill their master. _Not that he was going to do that, but obviously Louise wouldn't want to hear that.

_"_Those runes that formed on your hands. They create an unbreakable bond between master and familiar."

"_The bond has to be affecting me, actually,"_ she reasoned. Why was she caring so much for this boy already, talking and giving out information? He had to be put down anyways.

Saito did not mention his runes were nearly invisible at this point.

[/]

They arrived in Tristainia after about a half-day's travel. Louise led Saito to an immense cathedral.

"When you go inside, head to the priest in the highest position. Ask to give a confession. Say you have something evil inside that needs to be exorcised. All official priests linked to Romalia are part of the nobility, so they'll have magic. For your case, they'll cast the 'Revelation' spell on you. Oh, one final thing, if anyone tries to stop you for your plebeian dress, hand them this." Louise gave Saito a small stamp with the Vallière family seal on it.

"How can I tell which priest is in the highest position?"

"Their hat will be extravagant and towering."

Saito snickered cynically and brought it down it quickly.

With a deep breath, he walked into the procession filing into the cathedral for the day's prayers. He was sighted amongst the crowd quickly by nearly every priest for his dress.

And among those said priests, one Cardinal Mazarin, was a man who knew power. He held it, as a masterful square mage, and yet had rejected it when he had turned down the offer to ascend to the office of Pope for the comparatively low position of Regent of Tristain.

Unlike some other nobles, he was a proper representation of the word "noble." Still humble and always loyal to the Crown of Tristain. That is why it is no surprise that, in opposition to his title, he still opted to attend religious services a cathedral in the nobles' district of Tristaina, rather than in the palace.

Mazarin had been happily watching the devotees file into the building, and then he felt something hit him. A wave of sheer power. It imbalanced him to the point he nearly dropped his impressive hat before he steadied himself with his ornate, sanctified staff (those two items were his only indulgences).

Scanning around, it seemed the power was emanating from the commoner teen dressed in peculiar azure clothing that many in the Church were eyeing with disdain.

One of the other priests was already trying to stop him, presumably for his clearly-unfit social status. The boy was calmly pointing at a scrap of paper, demanding that he be given credence. Mazarin walked over.

"Cardinal Mazarin! I was telling him to leave, for he is clearly not fit to worship wit-"

"Calm yourself, Bishop Richilieu. We are all the same in the eyes of God," Mazarin said with a smile.

"But-..." There was a glare and the smile faded for a moment. "I understand."

With a bow, the Bishop left the Cardinal with the boy. The Cardinal felt that had got off on a good footing and that and began smiling again.

"Well then, tell me of yourself, boy. What brings you to this humble place-of-worship?"

The boy looked as if some of him wanted to snark on the humble part but responded simply by stating, "I would like to give a confession. My name is Hiraga Saito. Family name first."

"Right this way then, there is a room open currently now." The Cardinal pointed to a confessional chamber, keeping his voice steady.

Saito walked in. He wondered for the most brief of moments why the priest was so readily making exceptions for him, but decided to play with it. "_He's probably in it for some hidden reason. I just hope it isn't because I appealed to him in a ... certain way."_

He joked to himself, remembering how some priests of the New Religions, in particular Catholicism, were on his world. But in all seriousness, these "Catholics" here had magic, so he had to keep on his toes.

Saito was right on one account, the Cardinal had an ulterior motive. Mazarin wished to discern what exactly Saito was.

Closing the door behind him, Mazarin and Saito sat opposite of each other on a nondescript table in the center of the otherwise empty room. "What is it you have to confess, my son?"

Saito considered what to say for a moment. He could go with what Louise had told him to but that seemed like it might end badly. By doing otherwise, he had a chance to see what else the clergy, and thus mages overall, could pull.

Seeing inconfidence in Saito's silence, Mazarin spoke. "I am bound by oath to keep whatever said within the confines of this room between us. I will also tell you only the truth, for I am a holy man." He did not add that what he had just said could be superseded by what he could deem... _threats to the faith._

"I am as of yet unsure of my path through life," Saito spoke as formally as he could try for, "and I do not know what the future holds for me. I have committed a dark deed, will this hold water for my future?"

"You will have to give me more to work with. What exactly was it that you had done?"

_"Well then, there's no chance of them mind-reading, that's good news. Not that that seemed too plausible in the first place, but..."_

"I had nearly claimed a man's life." Saito said with actual difficulty.

"And you did not?"

"No. It was close."

"There is plenty of hope for you." The Cardinal shifted slightly where he sat. "Care to relate how? This is a confession, after all."

"It was in a duel. I was challenged. I do not care to say more."

"I see that you are not all comfortable with the idea of actually confessing. I wouldn't normally do this, but since you only wanted to know of your future and not... spiritually leaven yourself, I can divine it to some degree."

"_Future prediction? That might be a problem_." Saito leaned in at that. "That would be most helpful, Father."

Mazarin smiled. "It will not very accurate, and will speak in generalities. And you must let me cast a spell upon your body."

It seemed Saito had bought what he was saying like an orc being drawn to a stuffed scarecrow child. The boy agreed.

Lifting one of his arms dramatically, the Cardinal began to softly chant in some unknown language while waving his staff. "Fiy hanu si mi ni ododo. Needo si rė."

Disturbingly enough, Saito could understand everything he heard. And from what he heard, this was no divination spell. It was the Revelation Louise spoke of.

Mazarin, perhaps noticing Saito's ears perking up, quieted down before completely ceasing. Only a mage possessing the finest self-control or strength could chant the words mentally or cast a spell off of nothing for magic as strenuous as Revelation.

Now he just had to cast the spell to see Saito's true nature, and keep him occupied by reciting some words-of-honor from when he first joined the clergy. It would sound convincing enough to pass for talk of a potential path through a man's life. Mazarin began chanting, more to keep himself tethered and focused on his task than to convince Saito.

"I see two paths ahead for you, one of darkness and one of light. You stand before me now, so you are of great power. You stand before me, so the path of light is greater. But do not grow lax. There is a darkness within every man's heart; you have thus far triumphed over it. Continue on in your current path, and you will find salvation," the holy man incanted from memory. "There is-"

"Ah! Excuse me, Father. I just remembered something important." Saito cut in while inching away.

Cardinal Mazarin seemed like a nice enough man right now, but Saito did not want to stick around to see if he'd still be that way if he saw the true darkness lurking within _his _heart.

In a half-second, Mazarin's eyes were glowing white with power and his hands likewise. A command spell of his was shot towards Saito, compelling him to stay. He had to figure out what this boy was.

Saito picked up his pace, ignoring the light brush of sorcery he felt against him.

Mazarin was unsettled that his magics did not slow the boy in the least, but moved the energy of his spell to the door, locking and reinforcing it. It audibly sounded, a slip up from him.

All pretenses cast aside, Saito broke into a dash. Mazarin was unfazed and concentrated harder on his spell, overcharging himself to break past the barrier he had felt when attempting to stop the boy.

Pain shot up through him, but the Cardinal ignored the earthly feeling. Saito stopped at the door, ineffectually trying to open it normally. Mazarin unleashed the Revelation.

And the pain increased tenfold, no, a hundredfold as he grasped at the supposed-boy's nature. He gasped aloud from the terrifying visions he saw: a crimson beast, tearing savagely through an army of soldiers with muskets that radiated pure light. Massive, boxy golems driven on by more soldiers facing down the beast before similarly being torn apart. Great cities of pure steel lying with populations that dwarfed that of Tristain and all of Halkeginia. The screams as it all came crashing down at the hands of the beast and its followers. An entire world burning for no purpose save the callous love of slaughter.

Mazarin collapsed momentarily, overcome by what he had seen. The magic on the door wicked away. Saito dashed out, running past a full congregation, not caring for the venom-filled glares directed towards him.

After a few agonizing seconds, Mazarin willed himself up, pushing stoically past the sensations. In light of what he had found, it meant little.

He had discovered that which every member of the clergy been taught to recognize, not out of reverence, but fear. Fear that it would one day make itself known again. "Saito" was not yet ascended to full power, but that thought only chilled him further.

Something akin to the Ancient Calamity of 6,000 years past had returned. It had incinerated the world and reaped a harvest of death on a never-before-seen scale the last time it was inadvertently summoned by void mages before being sealed in the Fire Dragon Mountains. He had to inform the Princess and Romalia immediately. Mazarin left out of a side-door of the cathedral in a haste to tell those higher-ups of what he seen. The beast would be too fast to catch for now, but something could be done later.

[/]

Louise was beginning to feel second thoughts about sending Saito in the Church. No matter what a person does resolve, the sense of self-preservation is perhaps the greatest of part of being human. She sat on a bench, fidgeting. If Saito was found out and killed, running would only serve to make her most definitely appear guilty and die dishonorably. And that's what she was doing this all about, honor and for the peace of the world.

But the sense of a need to run was overtaking her. To mollify it a bit, she went around the neighborhood, on an extended version of pacing. Without thinking, she walked into an alleyway. It was the nobles' section of the city, so it was likely no problem...

As luck would have it... there would be a problem. Several discharged and dishonored nobles, stripped of their titles, had turned to banditry. They had noticed the lone girl in noble dress, and had supposed her to an easy target. When she turned into the alley, their suppositions were confirmed.

The first of the three nobles strolled casually forward, arms crossed across his chest.

"My, my, my fair lady. This certainly is a dangerous place to find oneself, even in a community as nice as this." She turned around, looking vexed, perhaps for her own foolishness.

The other two took up positions to completely block off the exit to the street.

"Imagine what might have happened if we had not found you. A commoner bandit could have had you. A sick man could have his way with you."

"And what are you oafs imagining to do?" she shot back with a fire in her voice.

"Luckily for you, we are still _honorable gentlemen." _There was an ironic amusement in his tone of voice. The man turned around, looking to his fellow noble-bandits. "We wouldn't do any of that, would we? No, all we ask that we be paid a proper recompense for... returning you home safely."

"Do you know who I am? I am Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière!"

"Oh?" He turned again, hands unfolding. "Then I suppose your parents would most certainly pay us a fine reward. We would not want the daughter of such a prestigious family hurt, no?"

She growled and pulled her wand. There was no hope but to hedge on that Saito was not dead now by the Church. "SAAAITTO!"

In a flash, the lead bandit's right hand was over her mouth and the other had taken her wand. It was sloppy of him to let her get that much out, but surely it wouldn't matter? A shout for one man. She was most certainly out eloping with her beau.

"Calling for help, are we? Do not worry, we are all the help you need to return home in safety..."

...Saito, having just exited the church, heard Louise's shriek. Already banking it out of the building, he headed full speed towards the call of distress.

He didn't know if he could fight again, but emptied himself of thought as he did right before the duel with Guiche.

The same voice spoke up again. "_Trade steel... enemies ahead._"

He gave in to it again, feeling some part of him permanently replaced with the urge to senselessly slaughter. The other parts of him readied himself, he had let himself go truly last time. It would not happen again, he vowed it. There was almost a death. he would not allow it to happen this time. He was no killer, he was a normal Japanese youth.

Saito saw three men carting her off, ostensibly linking their arms through the crooks of hers and escorting her like any gentleman would. But a third stood far ahead and to the left, hand menacingly on the scabbard to a sword, watching out of the corner of his field-of-view.

With surprise in their faces, Saito rammed straight into the first one, moving at speeds too great for the human eye to keep pace with. In a flash, Saito pulled the first man's sword, a fine and double-edged blade. Rather than stabbing into him, Saito forcefully struck the flat of the sword against the ex-noble's head, and was rewarded with a satisfying fall of the man. After delivering the blow he threw the sword in a calculated non-lethal arc that would have had the hilt slam into the target's hands, hopefully disabling his casting. The target reacted however, letting go of Louise and pulling a wand fast enough there was a crack in the air like a whip was being swung. Louise began to put distance between her and the almost-kidnappers.

The sword bounced off the intended target's left hand as he covered it in cobblestone rocks of the street below. The sword dropped off into the street with the clang of metal against stone. The would-be earth mage dropped his wand from the blunt trauma of the blow, which was great even if it had avoided hitting him directly.

The two men were highly trained, once being nobles of Tristain, and reacted quickly and in sync. The unharmed one of them was a wind mage, and with his drawn wand cast a spell over the two of them to grant themselves swiftness that would give them a hope against Saito. The wind mage also manipulated the air, loosening the jury rigged rock-shield to free the unarmed mage's hand. An attempt to cast a spell on Saito only slowed him marginally. Both then drew their own steel, seeking to stab at their defenseless assailant.

Saito only appeared unarmed to them, however. Even without a weapon, he was still far more than the boy he appeared as. He continued his run towards the relatively disarmed mage, dodged the blade as it swung perilously close to him, and landed a blow cleanly into the pit of the man's stomach. The mage was sent flying, stopping when he punted into a wall.

The final mage saw he could not handle Saito and tripped Louise, currently picking up the discarded wand, with a gust of wind. He pulled her over with another gust of wind towards him, the wand dropping mid-flight but a few feet away from him. The exchange had happened so fast not even Saito could catch him mid-cast. His sword went over her throat.

"Leave now or she dies," he threatened.

Saito was ready to leap at him but paused. Out of the fight for a moment despite an opponent standing right in front of him, the unnatural power he had lifted.

"I see you do have some sens- GAAAAAA!" he screeched as Louise swiftly kicked backwards into a vulnerable place.

The mage did not let up completely, his sword remained in place. However, his grip loosened. Louise slid underneath the weapon in that opportunity, grabbing the earth mage's discarded wand again as she did.

"Fireball!" she yelled. An explosion threw the wind mage back, and he joined his comrades in unconsciousness. She panted and turned back to Saito.

"We should go. Immediately."

Louise and Saito departed the scene after collecting Louise's wand. They left the three clearly bandit mages outside to be found and arrested. Without further incident, they walked to the stables where the horse had been tied and saddled it. While walking, Louise made a point of moving a little slower in order to see to Saito's back. On the nape of his neck, there was a glowing mark.

Louise thought as they rode, calming down from the commotion that had passed.

_"Saito came out of that church no different, yet I could see the work of a mage on him- meaning Revelation was indeed cast. That means he was implicitly approved of by the Church. And besides that, he didn't kill any of those bandits, even though they were a real threat."_

Louise sighed in relief. She dedicated a few more thoughts to the matter, but left it at that. If the Church had seen him to be in-the-right, who was she to doubt? Daemons had both helped and hurt Brimir in his days. It was best left not thought about, for it was the duty of the Church, and not her, to decide evil.

_"This means I can accept him, then! He's loyal, not even questioning what I sent him into. This is so cool! Far better than a gryphon! Best of all... it means I'm a void mage! Fair enough, I had bigger ideas than dying a Zero anyways."_

_"_What are you grinning about stupidly, Louise?"

"N-nothing," she blushed. "And who you calling stupid?!"

She was a dear like that. A person to protect.

Saito ignored Louise's pouting but cut in as he saw they were in sight of the city limits.

"Louise, aren't you forgetting something? We haven't visited a weapons shop. There's one right there," Saito said while pointing down an alley to a sign with a sword emblazoned on it.

"Oh, right." Louise went back to normal and beckoned to the horse to stop. "Let's make it quick though, we've got to travel twice-as-fast to Lagdorian Lake to make up for lost time."

As they entered the shop, a sleazy looking shop-keeper perked up.

"Ah! Welcome," he said, grease almost seeming to emanate physically off his voice, "What are you here for today?"

"I would need to purchase a sword for him," Louise answered.

"Oh! I have something perfect for you then." The shop-keeper walked into the back and returned with an extremely shiny decorative piece. "It's a trend recently for even the servants in castles to carry weapons."

"This sword is the best one in the store. It was by Germania's famed mage-alchemist, Sir Spee. It will slice any steel right in half," he continued.

"And how much is it?" Louise asked.

"It would be 3,000 with newer edition gold."

Louise angrily began berating the price of it, but Saito was not taking notice of the exchange. He walked slowly to a barrel, listening to a voice whisper.

_"Oi, oi, partner. I'm Derflinger. And I know when I see one like me. Don't take that trash. I can cut anything, I'm better than any other sword."_

Saito pulled a rusty sword out of the barrel.

"Yes, he'll take me..." the sword spoke.

"Hmm?" the shop-keeper and Louise simultaneously sounded off.

"I will take this sword," Saito repeated after the sword.

The shop-keeper was already trying to spin the scenario in his favor. "Ah, as you can see, that sword just talked. It is worth more than anything else in the store; I was excluding that when I was talking of Spee's sword. It may look old but it is still far bett-"

"Shut it," Louise snapped while pulling her wand. "We'll take it, how much?"

"On second thought, the price of it is only one hundred gold. It disturbed my customers anyways."

[/]

Nothing else happened as Saito and Louise rode the rest of the distance to Lagdorian Lake. If they had looked carefully, they might have noticed a distant dot in the sky tailing them, that of Tabitha, Kirche, and Sylphid. They didn't however, and arrived to the Lake with no fanfare after a long while of the beat of the horse-shoes and Saito conversing with his new sword, snippets caught here and there by Louise about how Derflinger could absorb magic or that it was 6,000 years old.

Crossing over a small hill, they sighted the Lake. Montmorency was not present, so they waited for a few hours. Just before Louise was sure that Montmorency had simply skipped out, she showed up. The sun was already setting.

"You're late, Montmorency," Louise stated.

"Yes, yes, I am... It doesn't matter though, we wouldn't be able to call to the Spirit before sunset." Montmorency responded without caring for Louise's words. She dropped to her knees and looked ahead to get a better view of the Lake. "This is bad. It seems the Lake is higher than it should be. The Water Spirit is probably in a state of anger."

Saito and Louise had noticed that, for a large number of houses were poking up from the water-line, having been submerged by recent floods.

Montmorency rose and spoke again. "I'll still go through with the ritual. But stand back. I should be able to reason with the Water Spirit." With Montmorency's word of caution, Louise and her familiar backed off a few feet into the cover of several trees.

Pulling out a small bag, Montmorency loosened the string around it and let its occupant out into her hand.

"Listen Robin. I need to get in touch with an old friend," Montmorency pricked one of her fingers with a needle and let the blood drip onto the frog, "so she should know it's me from this. Tell the ancient Spirit of Water that your master wishes to speak with her."

The frog seemed to move its body in mimicry of a nod and jumped off into the body of water. When nothing happened for a few seconds, Saito almost moved forwards.

"Stay back, Saito. If you two were to anger the Water Spirit with your presence, the Tear will be the last of our concerns. Our very lives would be in danger," Montmorency said gravely.

Following that, a burst of water shot up from the lake. It flowed aimlessly, streaming out in a waterfall in reverse with no particular destination.

"My name is Montmorency Margarita La Faire do Montmorency. I am a water mage and part of an ancient family that contracts with you. If you understand; if you recognize my blood, answer to me in a manner we can understand!"

The water ceased to spray outwards and concentrated into an over-sized approximation of female form. The frog returned with it, hopping into Montmorency's pockets.

"I remember you, you speck, and I remember the liquid that flows in your body."

"I'm glad then, O great Spirit of Water. I have a favor to request of you."

"Speak."

"I wish for you to share with me a portion of your body."

"I refuse," the Spirit said. The Water Spirit began disappearing, the sound of a spring stream passing through rocks made apparent as it rejoined the main mass of water, its business concluded summarily. Saito shifted uncomfortably and unintentionally, sensing a powerful being.

Sudden fear gripped the Spirit as it took notice of something unseen before for it was outside its domain, on the land near. It spun into form once again, stray droplets of water splashing about. "What have you done? _What have you brought here_?!"

One of its arms formed into a whip, and it went straight towards the position where Saito and Louise hid.

Reacting quickly, Saito tackled Louise and himself out of the way.

"**BEGONE DAEMON**!" the Spirit screeched.

Montmorency had begun to beat a hasty retreat. But the Water Spirit was in a rage and would not let her go. Retracting its arm, it formed it from a fist into a whip and aimed it and its other arm-whip for Montmorency.

"**You have violated the contract, what flows within** **you shall return to me**!" The two water-weapons headed straight for Montmorency, ready to impale through the soft flesh that held the fluids it deemed its own.

Instead, it was met with the rusty metal of Derflinger. The blade was absorbing the magic of pure nature that came its way, and, for its efforts, was beginning to crack and weaken visibly. Montmorency scrambled off alongside Louise. Kirche and Tabitha swooped in on Sylphid, no one caring for the now-trivial fact that they had been following Louise furtively.

**"You, you have returned! I always knew you would; I'd recognize you no matter your form!" **the Water Spirit howled in ferocious spite.** "You will not escape this time, even if I must flood the entire world**!"

"Partner! This is not good, I won't be able to hold for long! I know you've got something good, don't hold back!" Derflinger strained over the water blasting to him and the screeches of the Water Spirit itself.

_"OK then. This 'water spirit' needs to be cut down-to-size_." Saito thought with hotness growing in him. "_No_, _remember what you are here for_."

Saito gritted his teeth and let the power within himself sweep over and encompass him. "_It will be different this time_," Saito thought, "_I am fighting to protect the lives of others who would not have a chance! I am making up for the mistakes that have led Louise and the others to this situation in the first place!_"

To his infinite surprise, the voice within him that he knew to be listened assented, "_Yes_."

And then Derflinger was cast aside, a titanic battleaxe forming where the sword once was. Where Saito stood, there was only the daemon the Water Spirit had seen through to. Saito had let the fullness of his ability overtake him, not caring for any witness in the need to face down the angry god before him.

"L-louise! Tha-that's your familiar?!" Kirche shouted over the din of rushing wind and the noises of battle below.

"So this is what you meant by he had 'problems?'" Montmorency expanded on Kirche's point after finishing panting in fear of her near-death experience.

"Yes. It is... And we have to help him, that's the Water Spirit he's fighting!" Louise said, mostly ignoring Kirche and Montmorency.

Tabitha spoke with more words than usual, "No, Louise. This is a battle between gods now. There is nothing we can do," and Sylphid flew off to a distance, to hopefully observe safe from immediate harm.

And with that, god fought god as a deity born of brass and hatred clashed with a deity of nature and life. But there was something ironically separated about their roles and their origins: the daemon fought to protect the lives of others, and the spirit sought vengeance for a time long past.

The Bloodthirster stood slightly off to the lake, standing upon its shores in defiance and swatting at the attempts the Spirit made on its life.

For an eternity they traded blows, the very laws of time bending to accommodate the quarrel of two gods clashing in the realm of mortals.

With each fall of the ax against the intercepting arc of water that it rose to meet, the landscape around suffered as steam spilled throughout and the very ground was sundered, torn apart from the sheer power present.

With every crack of the black whip against the whip of water that met it, trees were uprooted and dirt was washed away by raging waters.

Storm clouds gathered and rain came down in a great downpour, deafening and crashing against the ground like the sea washes against a shore. The atmosphere reddened with fire as the Bloodthirster raised its powers in response.

The Bloodthirster was content to sit on the defense, slowly building up a trap between barrages. Warp geography rose unseen beneath the Bloodthirster.

This continued until the Water Spirit ceased its assaults, knowing there was no opening to found in such an equal battle. It backed up and circled around, looking for any weakness.

The battle was only beginning, the opponents testing the tenacity of each other. The Bloodthirster ceased its efforts at construction and focused all its ability into itself.

What was once Saito lunged with a deafening roar, leaping up into flight with his gargantuan wings and thus taking the Water Spirit by surprise. Landing atop the Spirit's manifestation but slightly above the waterline, the daemon tied the Spirit with its whip and took hold of what should not have been graspable. The struggling Spirit was smashed repeatedly by the Bloodthirster's battleaxe, the force exerted from it normally enough to utterly destroy even the strongest adamantium down to the last pinprick causing the Spirit to cry out in the first real pain it had felt in eons.

The Spirit melted away, a part of its body sacrificed in order to escape the deathly vise it was held in. Without pause, it counteracted with a stream of water from the lake that thunderously impacted into the back of the unaware daemon, causing it to lose its balance and its wings to give way momentarily. About to fall face-first into the very element its enemy controlled, the Bloodthirster acted on instinct and threw its ax with a mighty howl of exertion. It drove its way deep into the ground, drilling an unfathomable depth into the wet earth beneath the lake.

The water parted in an explosion as the weight of the ax passing caused the liquids to displace the edges of its normal occupancy. The Bloodthirster regained its drive upon touching down into the flash-dried land and flew off farther into the air before touching down where it had stood before issuing its attack. Water that was spread apart began to converge back together shortly after, the Spirit's reforming at the far western edge of lake, its hands moving like a puppet-master directing its pieces to beckon to the water.

**"You have grown in power since we have last clashed, daemon. But it won't save you."**

Both immortals regarded each other more carefully now, the Bloodthirster having lost a weapon and the Spirit some of its essence. There was a key difference, however... The Spirit would regain its power in due time, and a Bloodthirster's weapon is in fact a separate entity.

The Spirit, perhaps sensing this or taking in the visual cues of the Bloodthirster's comparative lack of armament, renewed the battle with a ferocious out-pour of rain that suppressed the Bloodthirster. The Spirit moved forward simultaneously, forming its hands into two swords of pure water, barreling forwards with a roar of hatred and the intent to kill.

The Bloodthirster unexpectedly wrapped itself in its whip, blocking off some of the damage of the Spirit's sword charge, before unleashing the coiled weapon at inconceivable speeds creating a distinct cracking sound in the air, knocking the Spirit off-balance back into the lake.

The Water Spirit fought with a half-mad rage, and this only played to the strengths of the fell foe it faced. Still though, the Bloodthirster knew it was at a disadvantage, and prepared to hedge the battle upon its one trap laid earlier. It was a great risk, and the only hope.

The Bloodthirster sneered and taunted the Spirit, ironically invoking the title of honor used but earlier that day. "**Such posturing, and this is the show you give?** **Fight harder, _O great Spirit of Water_.**"

The Spirit's answer was to send the surface of the lake in anger at the Bloodthirster, riding at the head of a tsunami. Such an action would drain the essence of the Spirit further, yet it was hateful enough to try.

Gathering all the strength he could muster, the Bloodthirster dug its hooves into the ground to avoid being knocked away and prepared a tremendous blow to hinge the outcome of the battle on. The Water Spirit cried in triumph as it repeatedly stabbed the Bloodthirster with its aqueous blades, drinking in the oozing black ichor and crimson blood of its enemy.

Not feeling pain but knowing it was being gravelly wounded, the Bloodthirster brought its fist to the heavens, called upon the ebbs of the chthonic abyss that was its home, and squared every last ounce of its strength into a devastating blow, bringing the fist down with incendiary momentum.

Reality itself split at the blow, jagged spires of impossible black rock erupting out of the ground and setting even the water aflame.

A restounding explosion of steam came as the Water Spirit saw and reacted too late. The largest spire speared straight through it, and it dissipated with a hiss, vowing that it would return.

The daemon fell afterwards, the swords of water still embedded and dragging it down before they disappeared on contact with the surface of the normalized lake. Great parts of Lagdorian Lake splashed off in massive tidal waves, ripping apart the surrounding countryside that had managed to survive so far.

Several riders on a dragon, the last of its kind, barely avoided the tide that swept past, inundating estates and villages alike.

The water remaining changed from the murky brown it had become during the battle to a literal blood red with splotches of black.

The body of the victor sank into the water, the mind somewhere else...

[/]

_Saito woke in a blank, nondescript room. The walls were white, the floor was white, and the lights were incandescent white. There was a blast door down far ahead of him, a small window showing out of it into a hallway equally devoid of feature. He stood up, looked behind him, collecting his bearings. The grogginess of sleep wore off in an instant as he came face to face with a much smaller version of the beast he had seen himself become. _

_For a very brief moment, he thought he was dead for sure. But he noticed a thin layer of glass protecting him. The beast beat itself uselessly against it._

_A sigh of relief came out. Then he heard foot-steps plodding down the hall nearby. He tensed in anticipation; whatever force being able to contain whatever had been within him was coming towards him._

_Saito could hear his heart beating like a drum, but, anticlimactically, only a frail-looking old man opened the door._

_"Is this a dream?" Saito asked._

_"Welcome. I am sure you have many questions," the man said while acting as if he had not heard Saito's question._

_Saito recognized the voice in an instant. It was that voice that had whispered to him the past few days, goading him into abandoning the morality he had grown up with. Goading him to senselessly slaughter. Yet there was something different about it, like it was not the actual voice but the voice of a twin similar to the voice that had spoke to him._

_"Before you go on further, let me speak. I am sure that what I will say will answer many of those questions. When there is nothing left to say, you may ask those questions."_

_The old man materialized a featureless metal table and two straight-back chairs in the middle of the room. "Come, sit. While I am answering, please do not interrupt. I am that which has been affecting you over the course of the past several days, so take careful note of what I say."_

_The chairs were cold but Saito did not notice. His attention was captured, and he nodded to the senior's request._

_"Saito... Hiraga. That is your name. It is mine as well. Strange, is not? Almost as if fate itself arranged for it to happen, across the bounds of time, space, and any logic." The older man was about to speak further but then stopped along that thread without demarcation. The younger Saito ignored that, chalking it up to the whimsies of age. "I lived in the land you call home, Nihon. By the era I lived in, many thousands of years ahead of yours, that was an ancient and forgotten name for a minor region of the empire that encompassed all of what you know as Asia. I was in many ways similar to you, living a care-free childhood and coasting through life. And yours was a world of peace."_

_The older Saito paused, coughed, and then continued._

_"That is where the similarities end. In my time, there was peace, but it was followed by great war and catastrophe. Like many others, I joined the military to serve my country and protect it. My family had been killed in an attack by raiders from a rival nation. Feeling real anger and drive for once in my life, I trained myself with hellish motivation and dedication. I vowed that no one else would face the tragedy I had. Maybe become a hero, too, while in the process. I soon rose through the ranks and led an entire army. Even so, I was still in touch with the call of battle, for I pushed my army as hard as I pushed myself, and was often challenged to duels for it. I never lost even one, for if I did, I would not be here."_

_Saito considered this new information before the older Saito went on. Things were spiraling somewhere and he did not know to where._

_"This made me a perfect candidate for one of the newly risen... Gods. It started with whispers in my head, promising me eternal life and honorable battles to take part in. It distracted very much, but I continued on, for my country and the citizens that I had vowed to fight for. Then, things began to turn against me. A new emperor was in power in my nation. The old guard was purged, including me. For the second time in my life, anger rose and consumed me."_

_History was never fascinating to the younger Saito. But still he listened._

_"I let the voices overtake me. Power flowed through my body, and I found myself to be a great servant to the God of honor and combat...-, a. He showed me his ways. All who died in a fair battle died for him, their blood shed and skulls added to a foundation of his throne so that they would have their place among us. And they were met in afterlife by paradise and reprieve to join his ranks of warriors, fighting without a concern in the universe."_

_Saito, being of only his own mind, missed how the other Saito did not say the God's name, and how he had strained in an effort to say it._

_"-So I forgot my mortal life and joined him. Emotions I had once felt as a human, like love or the desire to protect, fell through for one last feeling: the exhilaration of a fair spar with an enemy. Anything I had faced before my apotheosis became irrelevant. What had those hateful humans ever done for all my efforts to help? What a tragedy _my_ disappearance should have been; all I had done to help my nation. Yet I was gone without a tear shed. Did anyone even know? Like I was a hero then." The speaker sighed, as if regretting how he had felt at the time. "And, for a long while, so long that I do not even know how long, I lived content as I was, battling others like me, in service of other Gods, in a never-ending cycle. No one ever did fall, always coming back from even death, and I actually formed bonds with those I fought against. Finally, I was rewarded. It was a grand dream, it was heaven. Yet, the illusion never does seem to last..."_

_The speaker sighed, and he began expositing how the glory days had ended._

_"I had sneaking suspicions that the God I served was changing, becoming less about honor and more of pure destruction. Maybe it was a reflection of what was outside the dimension I lived. Maybe, with enough power, the God had forgotten the right way to go about things. I saw several other servants torturing newly-arrived souls, and, when asked of it, they answered only that they had deserved it."  
_

_Saito the apparent daemon continued. "I was determined to find answers. So, I prepared to venture out into reality once more. A new God had been born and there was never an easier time. I was one of the most ancient servants of my God, yet I was forgotten amongst the others. I had only stayed within the unreality, never battling in a way that affected anything material. I met with another servant, this one but a thousand years old and of a new generation of servants. He told me of his title, the '_Prince of Blades_.' Foolishly, I gave over my name as a mortal, lacking a title and, more foolishly, also trusting in him. Together, we left a portal for real-space."_

_"Once I had emerged, the sights I saw would have amazed the mortal existence I had. And they did slightly affect me at that moment, even in my state beyond human existence. Beautiful, shining cities that stretching beyond the horizon. And yet there were verdant pastures all about, green gardens dotting the landscape, metallic architecture that was more artful than any painting I ever seen in my lifetime. I was proud of humanity, and proud that I would do battle here and reward the great warriors they surely had with eternity under my God. For a moment, I had forgotten it all." Inside the room, the walls shone with images of the cities. It seemed as if the two were actually there. And the city was as beautiful as purported._

_The talking Saito lowered his head and spoke on. "What the other servant of my God had in mind could not have been further from what I wanted. With a bestial roar, he had rushed forth to the nearest gleaming tower in the city and broke it open with one mighty blow. Naively, I thought for the briefest moment that this tower was perhaps filled with opponents or, in the worst case, the evil being committed was only by this one Prince of Blades. But neither was the case, for flame consumed everything, and lesser servants poured in everywhere, screaming inhumanly and cutting with glee through the occupants of the tower and then readying to assault the next in the city. They were civilians. There was no resistance. No one was there to meet us in combat." Horrible visions of atrocities were now on the walls of the room. The cries of the dead and dying drifted from into the chamber from another time, another place._

_The voice continued on, not shaking or cracking but conveying shame nonetheless. _

_"What had happened to that honor I had once known? I was a fool. Eternal life is pointless if it is only to cause deaths to others. In a proud moment for myself, I braced myself and challenged the Prince of Blades on what he was doing. Rather than meeting me in combat, he simply laughed menacingly and incanted my name and told me what to do: 'Kill.' To my horror, I joined him in the slaughter, actually leading forth and killing more than even him." There were no images to accompany this, only the monotonous voice of the daemon. "In battle, all is fair. Traps, stratagems, retreats and tactics. It is all part of what we accept when we meet in the field. But, to hurt civilians? The very reason we fight is to keep war away from them! I finally remembered that when I saw the senseless carnage. I remembered. I remembered and woke from my dream in the heavens. And I woke... I woke to find myself in a nightmare in hell." _

_The younger Saito had difficulty taking this all in, but allowed the older one to continue._

_"I knew the God I served was dead now, still living but changed in every way. And I was dead too, a prisoner in my own body. For thousands of years, I was controlled by that one word, even long after the Prince of Blades had left. I traveled to countless worlds, visiting upon them untold carnage and butchery. Slowly, I lost my mind and gave in. Only a small part of me remained aware, looking for an opening. My weapon awoke with the fires of another servant, and I let it take over. For countless millennia, I drifted from world to world, no longer a servant, but a slave. And the latest world I was brought to... was here."_

_The older Saito coughed audibly again, this time retching blood. The lesser Saito ignored the blood; it was not important in face of what was being told._

_"My time left here is not great. You must forgive me for my long-windedness. It has be too long since I spoke to anyone worthy. I will continue quickly to explain what on this world that has changed everything. Once here, I found myself free again. The distance was so great the power held over me by that word was weakened. I thought freely and regained a drive to redeem myself. And when your current master spoke the name of Saito, the previous bindings were completely broken. The only thing left in the way was the servant bound within my ax. With me only along for killing involuntarily over all those years, any power that might have been given to me was only strengthening it. Along with the strangely powerful magical runes, I have struggled these past few days to gain the upper hand. Only just with this battle with the water being faced, with an opportunity to return to my roots of protecting, was I able to overcome the ax."_

_The old man hurried even further with his explanation as blood began to trickle out of his nostrils. "I have lived far longer than any man should have a right to. If I do not wish to be reborn, I will die. I am farther from the realm of Gods than I have ever been, and can finally choose it. And so I have a request of you: protect this world. Protect that girl, your master. It is a worthy cause, an honorable cause... I am relieved to have lived so long to keep the idea of honor alive, even if I was powerless to otherwise. It will die with me unless you continue it, so you must carry the burden. You won't be alone in it if you think you are not up to the task. I have been here the past several days, enhancing yourself in intellect, in emotion, and ability. That will stay even after I die."_

_The younger Saito answered after his long silence, taking in a deep breath before standing up in anger, his voice rising as he spoke._

_"And why should I do that? Why should I do what you want? Why should I **serve **you? You sound like a huge hypocrite. From what I've heard, I have not been me the past several days. You said your presence was affecting me, and I listened real carefully. So, by what you said... I've been smarter than I should be, have had my natural feelings, my feelings as a human! suppressed, and have been turned into a WAR MACHINE! Is this why I want to protect Louise?! I can't even trust my own feelings! __**Even**__ what I'm doing right now could be you! And what do you **even** think is good about her? She's just some stuck up spoiled brat who expects me to serve her! I'm far from home, not even acting the way I should!" Saito ranted while counting off his fingers. "I'm not even human anymore then, if you've 'enhanced' me so. I want myself back, flaws and all, no matter how cliché that sounds! I want to go back to living my uneventful life in Japan! Your talk of burdens, of honor... That's not something I want to do! I never asked for this! If you can get here yourself by portal, then send me back to where I belong! And if you don't, I'll just say your name!"_

_The forgotten creature towards the back of the room rammed the glass restraining it harder and it spider-webbed with cracks._

_Saito jumped and fear replaced his anger._

_"Remain calm," the other Saito said. "Or else you will empower it. In your current state it is linked with you. You will not have control of the inner beast within the weapon; it is doubtful you ever will master that power, although if you did you could be as powerful as I."_

_The daemon did not continue down that line of explanation, instead delving back into a response to Saito's posturing._

_"Very clever of you. Especially given you are only thinking of your own mind now. If you were to attempt to say my name to order me, we will both die. I have resolved to sacrifice myself but preserve your mind and give you an enhanced human form. An order to the contrary to waste my remaining power would not allow that to happen. Back to the main subject. You feel a need to conform to the way your society was. Your strong self-identity is only a fear of lack of authority, the assumption of responsibility, and the obscured path forwards. The fact that you are human, and will have flaws... it is a both a leash and a guide. My enhancement cannot do the impossible and give you powers beyond you could have in yourself by training and disclipine. I was lackadaisical as you were once and worked to the rank of general, still mortal." The older Saito only sighed, slumping slightly in his seat, the trickle of blood now a gushing waterfall. "Although, I will perhaps concede that I am a bit selfish. In my own way, this is how I seek to live on, even after I am to defy a God's will and die. How I seek to have the power to continue seeing my work continued." _

_The older Saito shifted gears. "Tell me, do you think we can defy our own natures? That we can reach for freedom, no matter the odds? For me, the answer was no. I could not deny the obstacles before me. For you, if you were to return to your world, the answer would be no as well. W-what do you think... you would be doing if you were back on your planet?" The daemon's voice was being affected by his pouring life-blood._

_Saito had little to put behind his dramatic call for a return to his world. Like the other Saito's childhood writ large, he could not see himself going anywhere._

_"I, I... I will answer that for you. Y-You would live an uneventful life. You would graduate from your... e-education, find a job and a wife like all others, and do nothing of importance. You would be nothing... nothing but a salary-man whose sole existence revolves around work and a small period of a reprieve at home. I-In your own way, you would be a slave. Another cog in the machine of whatev, whatever corporation you work at. Is that b-better than what I am offering y...you? A chance to have an impact, to not only dream but to achieve?" The daemon's blood was beginning to pool below him, and still more orifices opened and bled. The speech became staggered._

_The human Saito tried answering with determination, for himself and the daemon to hear. The words had cut him like a knife, slicing away any hopes of ever leaving as well as somewhat insulting his lifestyle and aspirations back in Japan. "Stop your social commentary crap. I don't need that. But I don't know. I do have friends and family back home, even if the relationships we have are shallow, and formed over small things like fast food, they're present. I won't leave that. And **you** don't know what I might do back on Earth. I might be a business-owner, an inventor, or something big." Saito, having had in a face-saving moment to at contest what was thrust at him, did concede. "I do see some sense, I guess I have no choice. Which is why I don't like this. You just never gave me a choice."_

_"No, no no no no. No. I know, I do. I-I have. Seen. Your memories and, I. I know all there is to know of you. You don't truly believe in the importance of those relationships. You were so bored of it all that you had taken to 'dating' on your local 'Internet.' Not only for the cause of finding love, but. But. Because life bored you." The dying daemon Saito stopped the fault-finding that even struck at Saito's face-saving, and decided to bring out a carrot as well. Maybe Saito had to be disabused of notions, but there was no point in breaking everything of him entirely. "If you would want that, that love. I can tell you...that there is already someone falling for you."_

_"Bets are off if it's more of your influence."_

_"N-no. It is not, it is not, it... at least not d-directly." The daemon in form of a man gasped, gathering all the air he could for several final sentences. "The runes disabled by me have doubled back into your master. She will soon fall irreversibly in love with you. Y, yu-you can choose to pursue that love, even if you feel nothing. Perhaps, some day, some day... far away, some day, far from now, the sa, sapr-essed emotions will return." The daemon continued even as its speech began to falter and break into whispers. "Wh-wha, whatever. The case. Whatever the case is. You, you cannot leave. I do not, do not summon myself. No. Portal. Out. Th, the, the. How-h-ever. There is a c-choice. For you. The only choice, choices ... left: it is between accepting what will be, and with honor. Or letting it all overwhelm you."_

_The daemon rose with visible exertion and a boiling patch of lava appeared to the right of him. He walked to it and let it slowly consume him as he sunk into it, the heaviness of his wounds lifting even as he burned away._

_"Sayōnara, as would be said by the people of your time. I trust you will do what is right."_

_And then Saito was alone in the room, his first question never answered._

**Author's After 0:00 Ramblings**

(1) _I just hope it isn't because I appealed to him in a ... certain way. _This is indeed a cheap shot at Catholic priests touching children. I just want to say that if I've offended anyone's delicate sensibilities or ruined the tone of the story or blah blah blah mreh oi oi, I apologize for nothing, because I'm an edgy lord of scrub nuggets. Though the list of regrets in my life is longer than the original run of the Super Mario Bros Super Show (52 episodes airing from 1989 to 1994 for reference), what I have done here is not in that list.

_(_2_) Something akin to the Ancient Calamity of 6,000 years past had returned_. I'm not exactly clear on the timeline of the Zero no Tsukaima world. Far as I can tell, 6,340 years is said to be Brimir's time. Then it says void magic lays dormant for about 6,000 years. Later in this fan fiction, a more detailed exposition of my idea of the timeline will come.

(3) So you can see the Bloodthirster's influence is said to be suppressing some of Saito's emotions, namely the parts that seemed to make him a total perving teen. I always thought Saito did display the capacity for higher thought, as you can see the way he was able to blackmail Montmorency into going to get the Tear in canon or a few other scenarios.

(4) _What is the terror of death? _This quote is actually from canon 40k. However, it's quite obscure and I couldn't confirm for sure if it was Dark Angels or the Imperials as a whole. Take it with as much salt you would if you were given a pile of cardboard to eat and it was buried in a mountain of snow.

(5) _My weapon awoke with the fires of another servant, and I let it take over._ Yes indeed, Bloodthirsters never come alone. A Bloodthirster's ax is only so powerful because they are "_imbued with the essence of caged Greater Daemons." _Which basically means "we put a Bloodthirster in your Bloodthirster so you can thirst for blood while you thirst for blood."

(6) _Empire that encompassed all of what you know as Asia. _The Warhammer timeline before 40k is not very detailed. But there is mention of a Pan-Pacific Empire ruled in the Age of Strife. So I figure if a warlord rose to rule that all, he must have picked up some fragments, not the entire thing. Ergo the empire that ruled all of Asia in still-mortal daemon Saito's time, which would be late Age of Terra, just before the Dark Age of Technology.

The idea that Khorne once stood for honor but changed is supported in canon, albeit in a meta way. In the earlier editions, and Warhammer Fantasy as well, Khorne was played up as a God of honor and he did not like killing civilians. All Chaos Gods actually had a good side. Now it's grim-dark "nope kill everyone" for blood/AIDS/'cuz it feels goooood man/because it contributes to the plan.

Hmm, one other thing. I can't seem to find much about Zero no Tsukaima magic on the Internet, and the anime magic comes off as real weak to me. A modern-day rocket launcher is a staff of destruction there. So I took extreme liberties with spells and stuff. If it's not painfully obvious by now, there's much more that I know about 40k canon than Zero no Tsukaima canon. Although, there is much more detail in 40k than Zero no Tsukaima... an obvious effect of having a sprawling franchise vs the work of one Japanese man.

Now that I think about it, the summary for the story does not describe the story well. It's really just a summary of the basic premise. The story isn't exactly high-concept (an idea sellable through one line, like describing the Tropico series as a SimCity that's harder, faster, and filled with way more explosions) though, some I'm not going to change it. It's the best description I can think of anyways.

There's more stuff I wanted to be in here, but this section is getting kind of long. If anyone reviews over what they think is a plot-hole or whatever, I'll post more of that in response in the foreword of next chapter.

I don't know when the next chapter is coming. I have some issues to sort out with my life. Sorry if anyone is enjoying this, but I do promise I'll be back with another chapter within a month. In addition, this chapter is not edited as much as I would like, so I probably made a mistake in grammar or forgot an important plot point.


	4. ACT I CHAPTER IV

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**"Knowledge is power, guard it well."**

-Blood Ravens battle cry, pre-Aurelian Crusade

* * *

**Chapter 4- On Legends and Libraries**

Saito's body washed to the shore of the much-reduced lake. Sighting it, a dragon and its four riders set down close by. Saito was not visibly wounded anywhere but did not seem conscious.

One of the riders, a pink-haired girl, leapt from the dragon and rushed to Saito.

Two others dismounted in a more cautious manner, as if readying for a new battle.

"Saito! Are you alright? Can you hear me?" she turned in a panicked manner to the others as Saito did not answer to his shaking. "We need to get him medical attention immediately!"

Kirche drew in closer, Montmorency stood unsure and ready to flee again, and Tabitha stayed atop her dragon.

"No, Louise. We all saw what he was. The Water Spirit made it quite clear that he was a daemon," Kirche said while pulling her wand.

"What? Are you seriously bringing that up now?" Louise went for her own wand and tensed up. "He saved us all."

"Yet he was the cause of the Water Spirit's attack, and I almost died because of that, even if he did save me. And my family had a contract with the Spirit! Next time it appears, well, it won't forget. A Water Spirit hasn't been killed since the days of the ancient void mages, and to think your familiar did it...your familiar is a daemon. I only hope it truly killed the Water Spirit, completely..." Montmorency's voice trailed off as she ranted to herself in a daze, head turning in circles as if afraid the Spirit was still around. Kirche spoke up while this occurred concurrently.

"Yes, anyways, as I said, you must have heard the Spirit screech that he was a daemon. Listen Louise, I know you don't like me and all that, but this is something bigger. Hand him over, we all know the dangers of daemons," Kirche demanded.

Kirche was Germanian, and thus head-strong and Germanians are always taking an opportunity to prove their merit, for Germania is in fact a place where one does not need to be born into the nobility.

"Of course I knew that he was a daemon though! Are you lot insulting my intelligence? That's why I took him to a cathedral in Tristainia, to be sanctified or even to sacrificed, me included, by the Church!" Louise pleaded in her own irritated way. Then she remembered something. "Wait just a moment! I have proof!"

Louise grasped Saito's body and turned it over. "Look here, to his neck. The symbol is faded now, but I'm sure you would all be better at detecting magic than me."

Kirche moved forwards and looked it over. It seemed true, and Montmorency followed up slowly. They both saw it. A priest had clearly cast a spell on him. There was still palpable magical residue.

Montmorency seemed to snap out of her fear and pulled Kirche back with her and they huddled together, ignoring Louise's snaps to _hurry it up._

_"_Look, Kirche. Ignore everything I just said, what you just said, or whatever you think. Don't try to be a hero. Don't go running head-long! I realise something now: that would be going to get us all killed. And I like living, don't you? Living is one of my favorite things to do." Montmorency motioned frantically about, swinging her fingers in the air and pointing. "Look, let's just take moment to think this all out, okay? That Saito there, he killed a bloody _god_. I'm sure of it. You saw that, and you see that spell, right? That spell's a sign of approval from the Church. And also-" Kirche interrupted her.

"-Yeah. I know it just killed the Spirit. That's why we should attack before it recovers. And that spell only _may_ be real, Montmorency. I mean, Louise probably wouldn't be able to cast something like that; Revelation is a high-level spell and also forbidden to learn except to Church clergy. But, I know very well you can grease the clergy."

"Maybe you think that. And maybe it was true in Germania. Not in Tristain though, because the Inquisition would have your head over Church bribery. That's one of the things that they actually still reserve the right to do here since the reforms. No person would pay that much as a bribe. Anyway, more to the poin-"

"-No, Montmorency, I'll stick by my "may be" real. I don't feel comfortable with this completely. There's something else to consider: what if Louise cast the spell herself? I know I said she probably shouldn't be able to, but she had the power to summon the daemon, so we should reconsider..."

"Not going to happen, and stop interrupting me. Not like wasting time in this blast crater's a good idea. Listen, Louise is a _void mage_. So-"

"-What? Where'd you get that crazy idea?-"

"Stop interrupting me, _damn it_! I'm trying to say something important here, Zerbst! Do you think you can do everything better?!" Montmorency looked to Louise tapping impatiently, folded her hands at her waist, and sighed. "Then again, maybe you don't know everything about this because you're Germanian. Okay, listen harder. Let's all calm down and run through this. We're all a little overexcited here." Montmorency took a deep breath. "So, Louise is a void mage, because void mages could summon daemons. She couldn't cast Revelation herself. Being a void mage is just like other elements, and a novice can't cast that proficiently in other elements. There's nothing about that grants instant power in other elements. In fact, void mages might not be able to cast in other elements at all, judging by how Louise is the 'Zero.' Therefore, she-"

Tabitha jumped down from her dragon and interrupted Montmorency. Montmorency only sighed again.

The other girls looked to Tabitha, stopping their discussing and sulking. "Saito will live," she said before walking over to Kirche and Montmorency.

"Sentient blades," she said, straight to the point. "Daemons can be good." Tabitha leaned back and didn't say a word after that.

"What?" Kirche went. Montmorency's face was splayed into another new, knowing look.

"Oh yeah, that's also true. Guess it's all fine then, right?" Montmorency supposed. "Again, you're Germanian, so you're probably not too well-versed with the ancient legends beyond peasant-level basics." Montmorency cleared her throat. "Now that Tabitha brought it up, I do remember that void magic could make daemons good. That enough proof in addition to the mark? So Saito should hopefully be fine, unless..."

"...So yes, wait, Louise is a void mage, summoned a daemon, then it's good? And what's the catch?"

"Riiiiight. I was going to get to that. But yes, she is a void mage- that would explain a lot of things, like her inability to reliably cast real simple magic in any of the four elements. That'd also confirm a priest cast the spell. And the catch is... well, I've never heard of daemons in their physical form being bound. The way it goes is that they, the daemons, would be placed in swords, trapped in to be wielded for good, their nature not necessarily all that different, only disabled temporarily by the fact they'd be in a sword and such. Of course, what I know is not everything. I studied a lot about the ancient legends, because, you know, my family _had _a contract with the Water Spirit, however, there's a lot more to the legends of old than what's known by the general nobility. If we wanted to know more, we'd need clearance to some secret archive or something of the sort. That's besides the point though. The facts are laid out easy before us, right? You good then?"

Kirche swept her head over and looked once at Louise. Next to her, Saito was beginning to stir slightly. Kirche gave an unsure smile to Louise and turned to Montmorency again.

"Yes, alright. So the point is that we've got a possible friendly daemon, an angry looking Louise who's a void mage, and know little about how a battle against either would go down with our novice magic. I'm not sure I want to attack now...?"

"Good. You're getting to it then. We're only students also, that's true too. And we don't want to mess with something that killed the Water Spirit anyway. How about we leave it for now and you can watch him closely?"

Montmorency notably said _you_ but Kirche spoke back as if she had said _we._

"No, we wouldn't be the best for that job. Either we act now, or we tacitly approve of him. If we were to report this after without having fought it, then your Inquisition will probably kill us for 'consorting with evil' or some stupidity like that, at least after they torture us to see what we really know."

Kirche was Germanian, and Germanians are also known to recognize reality when necessary in their practice of realpolitik.

"Wow Kirche, never took you for the realistic type. You were the one just wanting to rush heedlessly into the daemon and Louise before. Fair point though. I'm not fixing to get killed by the Inquisition either. The Church did approve, let's go with that, it boils down to that we didn't know any better. Anyone stops us for flying off from the site of... all this... we need to get our stories in order. Guess we decide Saito's good then, right? Keep everything that happened here all hush-hush?"

The discussion went on for a little further, the decisions already made excepting small details. The cult of let's-not-die had won out after the indoctrination of Brimiric religion.

"Yeah, and basically Saito is a daemon, possibly good, but definitely strong enough to destroy us all. Hence, that means we leave it be," Kirche continued.

The consensus would be boiled down to that Saito was a good daemon, and if he wasn't, then everyone was going to die in some horrible way. So he had to be good. They then put together some half-baked tale that they were out vacationing and adventuring before calling Louise over.

"Okay, Louise," Kirche said with a forced laugh and some of her usual lusty panache, "seems Saito's good. Let's go then. If anyone stops us, you're my kid sister and really shy. Saito is your servant or something. We're... whatever. Make up the rest yourself. Doesn't really matter, we'll fly discreetly all the way back to the Academy. It's the best place for medical treatment that's close enough to us but far enough away from this site. Above all though, don't give away that you're a Vallière if we're found; that's a famous name that'd complicate things... And hey, congrats on the daemon, huh? Maybe you give it your best and you can keep with me in our rivalry."

"What was that-" Louise started up before seeing Saito open his eyes. She bounced a tad in excitement. "Oh, he's awake!"

"We're leaving," Tabitha cut in.

Everyone piled aboard Sylphid in short order. Some slight errands were run first, like salvaging a discarded Tear of the Water Spirit from broken off essence scattered about. Saito regained full consciousness, pushing Louise away. "Where's Derflinger?" He dragged himself to the dragon after searching for and taking Derflinger. Both Saito and the sword were clearly weakened but rapidly becoming better.

"_Hmmph... I thought the other Saito said only up to what 'could be trained naturally anyways' in enhancements_? _Did he lie_?" Saito looked down to some cuts and minor open wounds. They didn't hurt, but it didn't seem they were sealing and repairing like his punctured eye had. "_Oh__._"

Saito spent the trip back glumly recalling yesterday's fugue state, trying to make sense of it all.

[/]

The ride back to the Tristain Academy of Magic was a success in going undetected. The riders had not seen anyone follow them. Sylphid set down in the courtyard of the school to no fanfare. Tabitha and Kirche departed their own way, while Montmorency, Louise, and Saito left for the infirmary. Montmorency walked with Louise and Saito but stuck a wide berth off.

They arrived to the infirmary, and Guiche was on a bed and arguing with the head healer. Well, "arguing" if arguing meant one person yelling and the other standing with a plastered, well-practiced look of complete frustration on his face as he listened through to Guiche's rant for the ten-millionth time that day played over in new words.

"You were unable to save my arm?! Why? This is outrageous! What am I going to do as a cripple for the rest of my life!? My looks, my nobility, what's it all for then?! What use is being in power if I'm only to be an armless laughing-stock?! And what happened to the other duelist, that plebeian? You have to listen to me, there was something terribly wrong with him! My mind wasn't making things up! There was no trauma or what you'll call it! I know what it was!"

He stopped when he saw Montmorency enter, and radiated a madcap smile, "Ah! Montmorency! I knew you would always come for me out of worry."

"Can it Guiche, I've just gone to hell and back for your undeserving rear."

Guiche was about to spout some nonsense about his gratitude and eternal debt of love to Montmorency when he saw Saito and Louise enter behind Montmorency.

"Ahhhhh!" Guiche flipped around in terror and blubbered before rising and slamming his head into some metal guard-bars on the side of his bed. Guiche's hitting the steel may or may not have been induced by some stealthy wind magic from supposed-healer. He pointed to the two behind Montmorency before collapsing and fainting.

Montmorency merely huffed as if that was expected. She called over the pessimistic healer and pointed to something in her hands.

"This is the Water Spirit Tear. And... they helped me get it." The healer took the Water Spirit Tear and examined it, looking it over.

"Oh, yes, could you get Saito some medical attention here? Tabitha says Saito's fine, but I want to be sure." Louise beamed before toning it down a bit. Saito began grumbling that he was fine before Louise elbowed his complaints away. "He's my familiar, see, so I _need_ to be sure."

"_Ridiculous. Not only did they come back with the Tear, but they had to be just scathed enough to warrant an inspection. What'd they even do on the trip to get such wounds? The trails must have been safe. Did they fight the Water Spirit? Ha, maybe then this patient's screams of an inhuman monster would be somewhat substantiated."_ Constant thought and snorted once while rubbing his temples. "Okay, yes. I will do all this. First, I will restore the brat, erm, I mean, ah whatever, this wounded noble's arm. Then- no, belay that. Inquire to someone else- ah, look over there, a nurse- get them to inspect your familiar. I have enough to handle as is."

The healer huffed some obscenities under his breath before taking the Tear and pressing the bottle onto his hand. The fluid inside poured out and he absorbed it. His hands glowed for the briefest moment with extraordinary luminosity before settling down.

"This better work." The healer muttered before turning to Guiche, "At least the patient is already sedated. Not by proper medical procedure, but the details, who cares?"

Saito was attended to by another healer, a heavy-chested female, who was examining his wounds while Guiche's operation was watched in great interest. Questions of no import could be heard floating from his area, such as _how do you feel, where does it hurt, how did you get these_ and typical answers from Saito like _fine, so-and-so places, and stairs. _It was always stairs. If patients were to be taken at face value, stairs, and not magic-related mishaps, were the number one leading cause of injuries in the Tristain Academy of Magic.

As this happened, Louise was hovering nearby, staring intently. The nurse pretended not to notice. No point in getting in the way of pink-haired girl that ensured job security to her (that was the way the doe-eyed nurse liked to optimistically spin it).

The main healer had taken Guiche's discarded arm out of cold-storage and was now gently placing it next to Guiche. He propped it up in the proper position and bound it together to Guiche's body with magical ice. Some more applied magic slowly brought life and color back to the white limb.

It was not simple as that, however. Few things ever were.

Parts of the arm had been torn off when Saito had most savagely ripped it out of its socket. With a delicate touch, the healer slowly approximated life and restored those pock-marks throughout, drawing a faint outline of what should be before finally settling down. The ghostly outlines materialized into full-fledged flesh, going from a dream-like translucent state to opaque and quite real. The limb was fully restored and no worse for the wear afterwards.

"Okay, that is done. The limb should function optimally, other than some minor stiffness and faint bruising," the healer said with self-admiration evident and soaking up the various soft praises of the operation's spectators. "Now I shall wake him."

Saito's examination was almost finished, the other healer having concluded that he was in need of minor medical treatments and proceeding to chant some minor spells. Louise's eyes were flipping back and forth between the nurse and Saito rapidly. The nurse was beginning to sweat a little bit under Louise's piercing gaze.

Constant placed his hand on Guiche's forehead.

The nurse incanted a word incorrectly. Saito was, instead of having several lacerations closed up, was met with splash of water. He sighed, not even moving.

Louise began yelling at the nurse. Constant roused Guiche with a glow of water magic.

So, it is at this point Guiche woke up from his steel-induced nap.

Opening his eyes, he was met by the irate-looking healer.

"Good, you are awake. Now, please allow me to ask you several questions, that way we can both leave and go about our very-important lives."

Guiche ignored the healer and tried to get his senses together. His head was pounding from Founder-knows-what. He hazily tried to recall what had happened up to this moment, ignoring Montmorency, who was going along some line-of-reasoning that she was happy to see Guiche up again, but he was still a dastardly two-timing bag-of-rat-ridden air.

Last thing he remembered, he was down at the field in Vestry. And he was in a duel, yes. He gave a good show! That stupid commoner was beaten good.

But wait, then the commoner turned into... _something else. _Something dark, something terrible, and something out of ancient legend. His shining victory had turned into an ignominious defeat.

Guiche yelped slightly when he heard Louise's voice, as that meant there was a chance the commoner-daemon was still nearby. Montmorency palmed herself in the face and shook her head, saying something about how he'd turned into a snivelling dog. The healer decided to simply leave, right there, Old Osmond and his paper-work be damned.

Guiche was ready to sprint out of his bed and follow the healer, but he froze in place. His eyes acted faster than his coward's instinct and went over the location from where the voice had come from. Holding in a breath, he observed the comical scene before him.

The commoner, Louise, and a fine-looking brunette nurse were stuck in a fool's parade. The nurse was stringently apologizing, bowing rapidly all the while; Louise was stridently criticizing her behavior, a haughty look on her face while her index finger was held aloft and chided; Saito sat impassively, like a thick stone in a raging, white-water river.

Guiche brought himself up from beneath the blanket which he had not even known he had cowered underneath. Seeing what was before him, he thought with that at times pea-shaped, orc-powered brain of his and decided that he must have imagined the daemon. No way what was there was now here. No way the hell-beast was the stone-faced boy in the infirmary. It was all... trauma? The word popped into his head from somewhere he didn't know. He exhaled.

"Hey! You! Commoner! Stop bothering those ladies over there! If you don't, I want a rematch to the duel! Some trick ended it last time, and honor demands I can redraw!"

Saito got up and followed in the healer's footsteps, dripping water as he left.

"Running now, like the coward you are? It's okay, I would flee from myself as well."

He turned at that final smug notr, and Louise, who was rushing after Saito, bumped into him as he paused.

Saito seemed to come to out of his detachment from the world.

"What do you know of honor, Guiche? You challenged me to a duel to make yourself look better. Your honor's just for show. And even more than that, when faced with real resistance, you folded in terror. You were the one to run like a coward. Be happy I didn't take my rights to the duel and finish you. Don't lecture me abouthonor."

Montmorency took the hand she had over her own face and rapidly relocated it to Guiche's in a swinging motion.

"Guiche! You idiot! Do you know what he's done for you? And what he is? Don't push him! And look at your arm! It wasn't that good a little while ago! Have you even-"

The door closed, cutting off the noise of Montmorency's diatribe.

[/]

Louise and Saito were back in Louise's room now. Saito sat upon his cot, taking Derflinger in-and-out of its sheath repeatedly. The sword made some _ow _noises repeatedly, although logically swords should not feel pain, and, if they would, would not feel pain from something so light when they are often used to hit objects at much higher speeds.

"So Saito? What's wrong exactly?" Louise asked in good nature. "Let's get it all sorted out before the familiar exhibition! I want you to be all ready for that."

"Nothing really."

"Stop that. It might surprise you, but I can read people very well."

"Even though you've got almost no friends?"

Louise's face darkened.

"That's probably the reason why, actually. Glad to see you're observant, though."

She turned away from Saito and huffed before facing him again.

"Why are you acting so conceited?" Louise groused.

"Conceited? If anything, I'm hard on myself right now. Just ignore whatever I say or do."

"Did something happen at the lake? Something you want to bring up? Hey come on, you're my familiar, you can trust me."

"No, no. Nothing really. I just turned into a fifty-meter monster and destroyed about 20 square kilometers' worth of pristine land. That's something I do every Tuesday anyways. It's actually something of a past-time in Japan, we call it 'going Gojira.' You know, in fact, it's some common we've got these special nature reserves set up just for the expressed purpose of rampaging through them. You get the urge to do so, and you book an appointment ahead of time. Then, you travel there by express transport- it's all very nice and managed by the government. The best rampages even got made in film. Why, they're popular outside Japan, too."

"Really? I was sure that it was an unusual occurrence on your world to turn into 'hulking, daemonic beasts' and destroy some uh, 'kilometas'-"

"_Really._ And I thought you said you were good at reading people."

"Oh, shut it, Saito. I was just returning some of your irritating sarcasm! The question was only asked out of concern. Geez, you are being so thick of it right now. And for no good reason."

It was true. By all accounts, Saito should be enjoying his current life. He was bound with mighty power, was sitting in a pretty girl's room, living out in a fantasy land, and had the call to heroism. It was like some bland, generic adventure manga story.

Hell, here he was becoming a typical brooding anti-hero. There was even some nice internal conflict to top it off while he undertook a journey that would better him for his experiences. Away from the complicated yet carefree materialism to learn life's simpler yet deeper roots. It was what he might have thought up as an escape back home.

And maybe that was exactly why he was so riled up. Those things were fun and games- an escape, a diversion. Just a pleasant divertissement from the real world. This was something else. Did he want to be the hero of the story? Was there even a real choice?

"Unlike you, I don't have a problem with my power," Louise spoke. "I've discovered that I'm a void mage. As I told you on the night after the duel, that's a lost magic. So it's kind of a big deal. Oh, something interesting- in fact, it's a little bit confirmed by your presence. I'm going down to the library to read up and do some research, I want to be ready when the word gets around. I'll probably have to step up to all sorts of responsibilities then. You can come to the library too if you want. And hey, maybe I'll be better at reading books than people, eh?"

Louise left for the library and let out her anger slamming the door, sighing.

Saito sighed as well. He might as well follow for now. The library would be a good place to continue to think, to process and get himself in order. It would be a good place to decide his path forwards.

[/]

Fouquet was on a mission to steal the Staff of Destruction. It had been transferred to the Academy recently for safe-keeping. The key word was "was." Her employer had contacted her and informed her to meet a distance off from the campus grounds. Her mission was to be changed.

She perked up and pretended to be carrying to important documents to somewhere else. The top healer on campus looked once at her and moved on, not stopping his tired stumble.

"_It was right damn foolish to call this meeting during the day. It's a hassle to sneak off from the school. I'm the head secretary here, so people expect me to working in that lech Osmond's office. This better be something good,_" Fouquet thought. "_Well, the mission must go ahead. You do what you must. The orphans and Tiffania need the money._"

Fouquet left the school, taking care to not be seen again. Out a small side door, a brisk jog through a dirt path, and she reached the meeting place. It was a minor abandoned home she had stocked up as a nearby stash and fall-back position. She looked around, not noticing anyone.

Her employer (or the employer's intermediary, it didn't really matter) stepped out from the shadows, surprising her. He was tall, handsome, and full of silky, gray hair coming down and about from his head, mixing his hair-style in with the lengthy beard on his face. His face also seemed familiar, where had she seen it before?

"M'lady." The man tipped his chapeau. "My apologies for startling you. You were just such a beautiful sight, I was unsure that you would really be the infamous Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt."

The euphoric hat-tipping was met by a cold stare from Fouquet. She was not about to let him know she was surprised, or give him the advantage in any sort of way. Appealing so brashly to her veneer of feminine purity? Pfeh, try again. "I assure you I am Fouquet, in the flesh. Now, what was your purpose for calling me here? What changes are there to be made to the mission? And I trust payment will be adjusted commensurately?"

He circled around. Fouquet's eyes followed him through the room, tensed. He'd be considered as beautiful as a man could be, but there was a lean, dangerous, and power-hungry look to him. She knew the type. His grasp settled on a bottle of wine. Fouquet hadn't placed it in the store-house, so he must have brought it.

"_This man, wait, isn't he Viscount Wardes? He fits the famous description. That's it. But, Wardes of the gryphon riders? What is he doing here?" _Fouquet's mind registered suddenly._ "No matter. He is employing me, I have to work with him."_

The man pulled up two simple, wooden chairs to the dingy table. "The mission can wait. I assure you your concerns about payment have been addressed. Why don't you join me for a drink here? I haven't even had the opportunity to introduce myself." Fouquet didn't budge. "Ah, come on. It's straight from the cellars of King Joseph. Finest Gallian vintage."

_"No need to let him know you know who he is. He seems like the type that would prefer wrapping up loose ends. Bet he spiked that wine with something that'd wait several hours in case I decided to get too friendly and know too much. Nah, stop being paranoid, Fouquet. He probably wants only to sleep with you. Scum-bag. Isn't he engaged to some Vallière? Whatever, no need to let him know I know his name though."  
_

"No? Well, suit yourself." He poured himself a generous offering and sipped at it before resuming his speech, a more studious tone taken.

"Your mission was to retrieve the Staff of Destruction. It is a powerful artifact, and would have been most useful. That has changed; something greater of value has made itself known. Thus the new mission. And this mission does not require you shift from whatever position you have infiltrated yourself into the Academy for. Consider that an added bonus. And, about bonuses, the extra pay with come after completion of the mission. Here is the up-front cost." Wardes dumped several bags out on the table.

Fouquet moved and sat down, more comfortable with the prospect of talking business.

"What are we after? And what's the plan?"

[/]

Louise paged frustrated into tome after tome, crying out occasionally. "This is useless, already read this, no no no no." It was all background noise to Saito.

He took a seat and set Derflinger off to the side.

There were three choices ahead.

_"Stay and protect Louise_," honor appealed. "_This is a cause as good as any other._"

_"Why do that_?" spite demanded. _"What has this world, what has any of this daemonic business done for you? The stupid girl over there stabbed your eye out. Strike off on your own. Forge your own destiny."_

Honor responded back, _"That may be true, but it was not intentional."_

The voices continuing droning in his head. He tuned them out.

He could fight to protect Louise as the daemon had requested. It was the most appealing path. There was a desire within him to protect her.

But the problem with that was that he didn't personally agree with it. Those feelings were false. Listening to that daemon would be surrendering himself. It would be giving himself up as a man.

He could get up and leave. He didn't know much of this world, but surely someone with the peak of human condition could manage in it. Yes, there'd be a nice irony in using the daemon's granted powers to defy it.

The issue was that was running from his problems. If he was going to run, he wanted to do it all the way back home. No use staying and wasting away his life here in this fantasy land. It would also be effectively resigning himself to his fate, only there was no honor in it even.

He could let the power of the axe, still separated from him by kilometers upon kilometers, and yet calling to him, simply overtake him. This would mean the end to his control and life, most likely. But it would a spiteful way to say no to everything; to destroy it all.

No one sane willingly goes to death without good reason. Saito shelved the last point, except for one last detail. The axe's calling was beginning to grow. The urge to kill was returning.

The daemon Saito had mentioned that, with an opportunity to return to his roots of protecting (along with a few other points), he had overcome the axe.

"_How about a compromise?_" self-preservation suggested.

The best solution was to protect Louise. The very thought of her sent the axe's presence into the backgrounds of his imagination once again. At the same time, he would search for a way to return home to Japan. Before it'd all be nothing but faded memories and half-remembered aspirations, he wanted to see it one last time.

That way, he could feel as if he would have some agency in his decision. Or, even better, once in Japan, hopefully this could all have turned out to be nothing but a bad dream. The influence of the daemonic, magic, and whatever all would lift. He pinned the hope of the hopeless upon that: to return home. He was sure somewhere that this world was completely real, but hope is hope. His hope was to wake up, and have it all have been a fanciful nap-time's fantasy, or to say one last farewell before accepting fate.

It was decided then. For now, play the part of hero. For Louise. Later, find a way back.

There were several other quibbles to address: what emotions had exactly been "enhanced," namely. Far as he could tell, melancholy, cynicism, anger, and other negative emotions were working just fine. He tried tickling himself and felt laughter flow out of him.

After some rigorous testing and various revulsive looks from nearby library-goers, he concluded only love seemed to be suppressed.

He could not remember anyone he loved, either. He could not remember their names or how they were. Only their faces, their hauntingly happy faces putting him at ease once, but not now.

There was a homely woman he loved only chastely. She smiled and handed him a home-cooked breakfast. A man who looked like the definition of average. He was reading a newspaper and looked up from it, acknowledging Saito. A group of young men similar to him. They were all sitting around, laughing and lazing the day away. Eventually, they went into a fast food restaurant and set down to eat.

Saito's memories cut off. He didn't want to continue it, if he even could, knowing there was a chance he'd never see any of it again.

He lay there listlessly for a while.

Time dragged on. Even Louise found a book that she didn't yell at, and set about reading it.

Whatever it would be, he decided his path forwards wouldn't be one of moping. It was fair enough to stay here for the time being until he could figure a way out. Best to get started learning then; more information would help both goals. Determination filled him to the brim.

He unsheathed Derflinger, not to slam it back into the scabbard this time in frustration.

"Derflinger, I want to know more of this world. Tell me more, like you did on our way to the lake. The history, magic, nobility; the works. Give me everything. Louise is doing her best, and I want to be ready too." It felt good. Like he'd been granted power over his life again. And he could almost hear a heroic musical accompaniment sounding off as he spoke.

"Nope." Derflinger responded in the most curt manner possible, ending the imagined musical number before it began. "I'm tired. Go read a book. We're in the library."

Saito got up and pawed over to the closet bookshelf. He could read just fine it seemed. Most likely due to his nature as being capable of the maximum capability of himself. It was a human language, so it had to be within him to know it.

He thumbed through some volumes on Halkeginia. History, geography, and whatnot. It was all dry stuff, but he read it anyway. A book here might have been on the terrain and waterways of the world. Another there about warfare. How to fight with swords. Proper care of horses and various breeds.

It was never in too much detail though. The Academy's library seemed focused around magic, then. Saito picked up a tome on magics to read. He picked it apart. It was mostly boring and mechanical descriptions about the nature of magic. Good to know though.

A page caught his eye though: "The Magicks of Ancient Times." Included within it was the summoning of daemons, but it did not go into further detail. Much of it was torn out or blackened. So then that was for a different volume: "The Ancient Legend: The Void After Brimir." Saito did not bother taking some of the books he had been perusing back to the shelves. He used the organization around the library to pin down where it would be and made his way to its location.

It was not there. He looked around and saw where it was. Louise was flipping through it attentively close-by.

Saito sidled up to her. "What're you reading?"

Louise jumped slightly in her seat. "Ah, Saito. Hello again. I see you're calm now. I got tired of getting nowhere with void magic. So I decided to pick up an old volume about the ancient legend. Take a break, touch up on some old stories. And this, it was my favorite story as a child."

"It's a great tale, even aside from its religious context in that it was a time when void magic was still open," she continued. "It's got lots of dramatic battles, dashing heroes, adventure, and in the center of the tale is how a young girl and several of her friends rose to their destinies."

"Ah, inspiration, huh?"

"Well... not everything has a hidden meaning, Saito. It's just that I liked the story. The message does relate, but the story has to be able to stand on its own too, you know?"

"Mhm." Saito's face showed the hint of a bemused smile.

"Whatever. Think what you want," Louise griped.

She then pointed to the books Saito was carrying. Her voice was shaking somewhat and she didn't look Saito in the eyes. "You know, in the spirit of taking a break and all, why don't we go see some of that stuff you were reading about first-hand?"

"Hmm?" Saito looked to the books he hadn't placed back on their places on the shelves. Several of them seemed to be related to nature, geography, rivers, and the like. "Oh, sure. Why not?"_  
_

_"She's in love, that's right. That's something I'd dreamed about back in Japan... to have a girl totally into me. It feels wrong though. If she asks, I guess I can't go ahead. I feel nothing. Although the daemon did say my feelings would return... maybe if I believe enough in a false love, it becomes real? No Saito, don't take advantage of her."_

"All right. Good. Destiny can wait a day. Let's go do some sight-seeing."

Saito and Louise saddled up a horse again. This time, for recreation.

Saito was careless about seeing pretty sights at first. But, as he rode along, he grew more and more into it. Halkeginia really was beautiful, something he'd failed to take note of before.

The blue skies above were cloudless and sunshine shone through unobstructed. It'd rained earlier that day, and the last drops of dew were illuminated by the shining light of daytime. Birds chirped and the wind softly fluttered against the grass. The heat felt good on his skin, and Saito allowed himself to relax.

The air was like drinking from the freshest, coldest bucket of stream-water after a long day's work in summer. Saito felt all his worries melt away with every breath.

Greenery lay all around in each direction. It was like being adrift in the endless Pacific, only the water had been turned to plant life by some divine miracle.

Only the thuds of the horse's foot-falls against the ground interrupted the perfect day. Even that eventually became adjusted, a peaceful and rhythmic addition to the quiet roads.

"So Saito," Louise chimed in, "how's the scenery?"

"It's really something," Saito said dimly.

"Bet you didn't have anything like this in Tōkyō, eh?" Louise grinned.

"We did have parks. Special nature reserves. Nothing like this though."

"Yeah? The same ones you'd rampage through?"

A playful elbow to Saito from Louise.

"So where are we going?"

"Oh, you'll see. It'll beat everything you've seen so far by a far shot. In the meantime, why don't I tell about some of what we're seeing..."

As they rode, Louise pointed out fixtures in the landscape.

"That plant over there is the Misericord flower. It's a risible plant. They named it for a passage describing humanity in the Book of Brimir. It's good as a stimulant, really keeps you awake. Isn't that funny what that's saying about people?"

And so on. They passed through worn out dirt paths, Louise speaking at length of plant life. They passed through a town, Louise spoke about it too.

"You're smarter than I thought, Louise."

"Thanks. I'll take that as a compliment." Louise beamed gauchely at the praise. She never received much of that. "I tend to spend my time just learning. I try, I really do."

Louise was not a failure for lack of effort. Given a lack of friends and academic success, she had striven to dig herself in and doubled back on learning. That made her different from Saito, who had never cared.

"A question, though, Louise."

"Yes?"

"So these people out in the fields? How're their lives?"

"They're peasants. Unimportant in the grand scheme of things. They'll spend their lives performing menial labor here. I actually thought you were one when you first appeared. That would have been sad."

Louise expected more praise, but only heard Saito exhale a small half-sigh.

"Yeah. Real sad."

"_Nothing to be done about it. The world is still feudal,"_ he thought. Saito fell away from the world once again. He fell into the trance of the tapping hooves and the waving meadows.

They rode until late evening. Saito felt he could have gone on forever like that.

The waking dream of the horse-ride stopped with Louise's voice coming up again.

"We're here, Saito."

Another lake was ahead. This one was small it could easily be called a pond.

Saito sat down in the grass upon a small hill. Louise followed.

The water lay still. It was completely motionless, but not stagnant. It looked frozen in time. Saito reached out and tossed a rock at it.

The surface rippled away like it had been waiting for someone to disrupt its stasis. Pockets of water danced about, forming into any manner of shapes and melting away as fast as they would come. Halkeginia's Sun was beginning to set, as it always did, and the stars were starting to shine in its place.

The bright stars and the moons above reflected onto the water, bringing a range of dazzling colors and lights into the moving waters. The dance continued, and nature's beauty was shown, seen here only by the horse and the two riders.

"Look Saito." Louise pointed into the distance.

The torches of a village were lit for the night. One by one, pinpricks of light came into existence, defiantly beating back the darkness in conjunction with the moonlight. The torch-lights linked together, and a luminous bubble formed in the empty stretch of blackness that was night. Saito and Louise lay there, viewing the picturesque scene before them in wordless satisfaction.

_"Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, to live on this world. And it wouldn't be so bad to protect Louise._"

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Louise asked. "I'd always come here when I was feeling down and out of it. It doesn't match the Secret Garden I had back at home, but it is still something... And today, it really does seem like the best it's ever been looking."

Saito looked over to Louise. She averted her gaze, blushing.

"S-saito..."

He looked to the stars, laying down. His head went onto his elbows.

"Yeah. It's really something. Why don't we stay this way for now? I like the way things are between us." Saito pre-empted Louise's confession. "_There we go. She's is to be in love with me, huh? As I thought... I'll leave that off. Kind of scary the runes were supposed to do that to me... And so fast?"_

"Well, it's great and all, but we shouldn't stay here too long though," Louise added, speaking with hasty alacrity. "Tomorrow's the familiar exhibition. I'm sure you'll do good if you give it your best, but no point in tiring you out. Let's get going back, we'll take a less scenic route to make haste to the Academy. All when you're ready, of course. Make it soon though."

"_Seems all good things have to come to an end_," Saito mumbled to the grass.

The voices returned.

Spite spoke up. "_Why protect this world though? The daemon had wanted it, but you're your own man. Go ahead and keep guard for Louise if you insist so much, but, at the very least, don't try to protect it all. No one here deserves it."_

So did self-preservation. _"You'd have enough trouble already picking fights for Louise. Be a hero, but don't die. You'll protect exactly nothing if you're dead."_

Honor begrudgingly gave its own opinion. "_You didn't give your word to do anything yet involving 'protecting the entire world.' Only Louise. That much is true. Choose what you would like."_

Saito listened to the voices.

And the horse rode back in mostly silence, save for the tapping of its metal shors on the beaten dirt trails. Saito and Louise soon reached the Academy's outskirts.

They saw a mountainous golem before them. It thundered to a tower of the Academy. Its fist began pounding the tower, with clear intent to destroy.

[/]

Fouquet opened the door to the women's restroom.

_"It's down-right embarrassing and improper for him to be going in. But, this is the way... and the mission is actually much easier. Why did he want me to create a golem at all?"_

"Save your misgivings," Fouquet said to herself and Wardes. "Come through here, there's another door. It's the entrance to the underground library-archive you wanted."

The man only showed faint amusement on his face.

"The entrance is in the ladies' restroom? Oh dearie me."

Fouquet ignored him and pressed on the wall of the supply closet opened. Her touch caused it to rotate and reveal a secret passage-way.

"You've certainly done your research, Fouquet."

"Thank you." Tunneling underneath the Academy in an attempt for the vault was one of the most natural choices for an earth mage thief to try. She had discovered the archive then.

They walked forwards down a stone hall. The only light source was the lantern Fouquet carried, and it was vastly insufficient. It threw up light, but didn't nearly cover the entire breadth of the hall. At times, she even had difficulty keeping Wardes in view. Darkness licked at the edges of the lantern-light. The impression that unseen shapes in the shadows followed them was apparent, but, anytime Fouquet shown her light, it seemed the shapes would duck away.

Fouquet and the gray-maned man reached an impasse. A large, locked door with three magically incanted spells.

It took only a second for Fouquet to cast a spell to unlock. The door creaked open with shaky effort.

The pair continued forwards. The hallway gave way into a wider one, this one buttressed up by stone pillars.

Another door ahead. It was only of wood. The obstacle was momentary as well.

The hallway contorted back into one a smaller passage. The buttresses disappeared. A bright light shone ahead.

The walkers reached the light. Coming out into it, Fouquet remembered the deep hole the archive was built into. The archive building lay ahead, built into a protruding cliff hanging over a steep drop.

She stopped. The man did too. There was a perilous passage ahead. A thin pathway stood above plummeting to certain death.

Fouquet cast a spell. Rocks from around her on the cliff face lined and reinforced the ancient bridge. She even took the extra step of placing guard railing of rock.

"I would say you exceeded my expectations, but this is easily what I would expect from an earth mage as masterful as the Crumbling Dirt."

Fouquet and her employer walked on the bridge cautiously until they fully crossed over.

"It might take a while. There is a book I wish to take from here. As discussed, ready your golem and place it near the Academy for us to depart in, then wait outside. I must not disturbed, and we should have a fast path to extricate should the situation turn unfavorable." The Viscount gave orders summarily before disappearing into the archive building itself.

Then Fouquet noticed the foot-falls continuing despite Wardes no longer being around to make them. She made as if to stretch, but pulled down her hand at the last moment to her wand and drew it with practiced speed.

Fouquet cast and sent a barrage of rocks to the position of the foot-steps.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the rocks were set ablaze and failed to connect.

_"Whoever this is, he's clever. Guess I was right about feeling something was following me,_" Fouquet thought as her eyes darted around and her ears pricked up. "_He waited until I was on the archive's magic-resistant stone. And he waited for me to be alone_." She pulled together a group of rocks from the cliff-side the archive perched on into a makeshift palisade to shield herself from possible covert attack.

The target revealed himself, wreathed in flame that had distorted the light around him to give invisibility. His face remained hidden as the magical light illuminating the archive did not shine in the right angle. His arm held a heavy wooden staff, and he planted it firmly on the stone below.

"_That clothing, is it a teacher's?"_

"I've been tracking you since you entered the archive. Watching from the distance, I wasn't sure of your intent until you reached here. Your trespassing has not gone unnoticed. Lay down your wand now, and I assure you will be fairly tried." The man extruded a presence of danger. Fouquet knew she was in the company of a masterful fire mage. His face was now lit, and it was etched with reluctance but determination.

"_Does he know I'm not here alone? He speaks like if it was only me here... And also, I feel I know him too."_

"Last chance," the fire mage said, lifting his staff and readying it.

_"His voice... is Professor Colbert's._" Fouquet realized. She frowned underneath her hood and put herself into a combat stance. "_Looks like I'm not the only one who isn't how they appeared."_

"You're the legendary Flame Snake, aren't you? Strange that I didn't see it before, Professor Colbert. You hid it well. Ironically enough, your use of invisibility gave that away," Fouquet mused. "I guess today's the day for legends to meet. I'm Fouquet, Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt." Colbert grimaced and shifted into a ready position.

Living up to her title, Fouquet sent a landslide speeding downwards onto Colbert. He disappeared again, the smell of flame still burning the air.

Fouquet swept around desperately. She heard a _whoosh_ and was too late as Colbert revealed himself and swung her staff at her.

Fouquet twisted backwards and dodged the majority of blow's force, recovering with a cartwheel into a back-flip away. She shot off a few rocks into where Colbert had once stood, but he had disappeared already and was elsewhere.

The action repeated once more. Fouquet felt the approach by instinct and Fouquet managed to catch Colbert off guard by splitting off parts of her makeshift palisade and shooting it towards him. He flinched only slightly as he was hit by small bits. The rocks burned away easily in blue flame and Colbert disappeared again.

She was getting frustrated. Using her wand, she cast another spell. Rocks flew in from all about and began padding over the archive entrance's stone flooring. This way, she'd be able to detect him much easier.

Colbert revealed himself in earnest, the padded rocks being burnt into greasy splotches.

"I won't be holding back now," he said as he readied his staff for a direct blast of flame.

_Fouquet_ decided _now _was a good time to call her golem.

Some people would have to die today. She never liked killing. She did, however, enjoy living over her disdain of killing.

[/]

The golem thundered its way out of its forest hiding spot nearby. It made its way to the tower that held the entrance to the archive. Thankfully for Fouquet, the magical defenses guarding the tower that held the vault of the Staff of Destruction had not been applied everywhere. Cost-saving measure.

Louise was screeching at this time.

"SAITO! SAITO! DO YOU SEE THAT? GO FULL DAEMON AND DESTROY IT, NOW!"

Saito dismounted the horse calmly and took a seat on a tree stump.

"Don't see why I should do that. It's not threatening you. This isn't my fight then. I've been giving it some thought, and I decided saving everyone all the time is overrated."

"WHAT? WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING? YOU SAVED EVERYONE BACK AT THE LAKE!"

"Well yeah, but the Water Spirit said it was going to be flooding the entire world. Entire world includes you eventually, so there you go."

"_I wasn't actually in control,_" wasn't what Saito said.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOT THREATENING ME? IT'S ATTACKING THE ACADEMY. THAT'S MY HOME. AND THERE'S PEOPLE IN THAT TOWER THAT'LL GET KILLED."

"All right, all right, fine fine. If you insist." Saito pulled Derflinger, who woke with an _ehhhh_. "You see, I'm really tired though. From the lake fight. I'm not going daemonic or anything."

"WHATEVER! JUST ATTACK IT ALREADY!" Louise dismounted the horse. Saito obliged and began running towards the golem.

_"Strange. I'm not running as fast as during the battle with the bandit-mages. Oh, human limits... right..." _Saito craned his neck and yelled to Louise.

"OI! HEY, LOUISE! Maybe open up with some magic of yours? You know how to make things explode!"

Louise raised her wand, but they were too late. The tower collapsed and the golem stood in its ruin. It smashed its fists downwards and began tunneling, digging fast as a golem of earth element could.

"Nothing to be done about it, it's gone," Saito whistled. "It was so huge though, how could we have fought it?"

Louise slapped him and began tearing up..

Saito heard clearly where he stood, with him being much closer to the ruined tower and the voices not speaking. He heard the anguished laments of the dead and dying from the tower. He heard the structure completely collapse, the sickening crunch silencing hundreds.

A splash of blood doused them both. Louise broke down.

Her cries filled the otherwise void silence of death in the air.

[/]

Fouquet was struggling to keep up. Colbert had blasted barrage after barrage of burning blue fire at her. Each time, she was getting away with less and less breathing room. An earth shield here, a jump here, and at first she had even been able to throw an attack here and there. It was all beginning to tire her out. Her panting breath grew shallower and shallower by the moment and the archive's echoing chamber was filled by the sound of her exhaustion.

She considered her options. The golem was several minutes out, the archive's dome storage being constructed by expert builders.

Colbert prepared another blast of flame. Instead of firing it directly, he levitated a stone Fouquet had tossed earlier into the air. He directed his staff at it before Fouquet could act on it. Fire and stone mixed, raining hot rock down and about all over. Fouquet was able to disable the larger chunks of fire-stone and contest with her earth magic, but the smaller ones played more to her opponent's element. She hopped about, skipping past embers.

Fouquet was used to going up against opponents far above her caliber. That was something she was used to. She was only a triangle class, and still had stolen from any manner of higher-ranking mages.

It was never directly on the field of battle, however. Always sneaking in when opportune, taking what she wanted and leaving. Stealth played to her strengths.

But Colbert was the Flame _Snake_. There was no way she could beat him in the field of stealth.

Colbert directed his staff downwards and conjured a flood of oils. More flame followed. The ground ignited and Fouquet tip-toed her way delicately, lining her feet in rock to protect herself when agility failed.

Fouquet's triangle class casting consisted of earth, air, then fire. Water magic would have been a godsend, but there was no lake or whatnot around to help her anyway. She wouldn't be skilled enough to cast water out of nothing. She didn't know it either, so no use dwelling on what wasn't.

Colbert inhaled deeply and resumed normal barrages of blue fire.

Earth was already being used as much as it could. It was her primary element, after all. Fouquet blocked a sudden gust of flame by tossing a boulder in its way. It incinerated in a half-second, splitting into a million burning fragments.

Fire was out of the question against the _Flame_ Snake. He would probably turn the flames back onto her or something unpleasant of the like. A loose piece of burning debris acted like shrapnel and flung off into her. It swept along and cut shallowly into one of her legs.

She had to find a way to bring air into the equation, offensively. She was already augmenting her prodigious aerobatic ability to dodge the constant sweeps of flame at her. Fouquet slowed ever-so-slightly to pat out the rock-shrapnel's fire.

Another blast of azure flame. It was a concentrated ball this time. She managed to deflect most of with another rock, but stray droplets of fire shot off. One lone ember fell onto her hood, and it ate hungrily at her, spreading away from her head and down the length of her body.

Gray smoke started floating over the battlefield like wisps of vengeful fog.

She almost screamed but bit her tongue. Fighting through the pain, she crushed a rock into dirt and hit herself with a shower of earth. The fire went out.

Smoke and dirt filled her lungs. She hacked and coughed, scrounging for oxygen. A burst of air magic cleared her breath.

She'd slipped up. In a way more than last mistake, however. She looked back to Colbert when the smoke cleared from her artifical winds, and now he was in the center of a storm of flame. She was too focused on herself, and not noting her opponent enough.

Putting together his own combination of fire and air magic, Colbert was the eye in a storm of fire. Streaks of fire flew about, blue and indigo and red and tangerine and yellow and apricot. It was show of light and color in the otherwise dull and sterile white light of the archive. It was beautiful and macabre, all at the same time.

Fouquet could feel the heat from where she stood. The wind of the storm blew her hood down and fire began creeping its way over.

"Back in Albion," Fouquet dropped to the ground in pain, "I was one of the highest ranking nobles. Funny thing, everyone always wanted something from me. Everyone wanted power, everyone wanted recognition. They were all jealous. Those I thought I knew as friends and acquaintances didn't think for a moment to betray me." Fouquet's hands went over her chest in pain where a scorch mark was.

"I lost my title due to their greed and selfishness. Now I see that isn't unique to Albion. It's true across the board. It's true to humanity on a whole. Even myself. I hide my face as the thief Fouquet, but never how I am now. I steal and I don't dress that up." Fouquet spat. "You hid at a school for so long, escaping your life as the Inquisition's Flame Snake... escaping a life dedicated only to killing. How many did you kill by that cruel flame of yours, how many deaths did you cause?"

Fouquet ground her teeth together and closed her eyes.

"Well, you're going to cause mine, so add another. This one will be honorable though, won't it? So do your students proud. Show who you really are. Strike me, the evil thief... strike me down, professor_. _Be the day's hero."

Colbert lowered his firestorm and shook his head. His opponent was thoroughly beaten, and he was one to show mercy. His hands began glowing with water magic. He plodded over, his flame staff now a supporting cane.

Fouquet opened her eyes.

"Going to heal me now, are you? Self-righteous scum. Finish... me... off," she strained from the weight of a heavy spell from Colbert.

"What a waste..." Colbert murmured to no one in particular.

"_Just... a little... longer,_" she thought.

The archive started shaking. That was unexpected, but Fouquet took full advantage of it. Colbert was thrown slightly off-balance. She used the last reserves of her willpower to break Colbert's magical restraint and power herself forwards with wind magic. She squarely kicked Colbert in the jaw before piling on as many rocks as she could to him.

Wardes exited the shaking archive, one hand keeping hold of his hat and another tightly grasping a book to his abdomen. "I had expected something of the sort to be defending the archive from trespassers, so, your golem is readied?"

"One step ahead of you," Fouquet spilled out. _"_Actually, we don't even have to run out of here anymore."

The golem's fist punched through the ceiling of the dome. It scooped Fouquet and Wardes up.

Fouquet glanced back one last time. The bridge to the archive was collapsing. That would leave her opponent trapped.

The rocks began to glow and Fouquet looked away. The golem carried her and Wardes out to a clean escape, jumping up to the surface, but Fouquet knew the Flame Snake was not done in.

The golem broke into a sprint and distanced itself from the school. Security from the palace's gryphon corps was already swooping in to contain the situation.

"That's my cue." Wardes smiled and called for his own gryphon. "I was coming here for a surprise visit to my fiancée, see. And the situation just called for the gryphon knights to appear... I'm self-less enough to give a hand when I'm near, even when I'm off-duty. 'That's the captain for you, an example for us all.' Wish me luck."

"Wait," Fouquet said. "Normally I wouldn't care, but I almost died. What was in that library that was so valuable?"

Wardes' gryphon flew in. Wardes placed one foot on it and looked back to Fouquet, holding up a dusty tome.

"The archive held this. A book. On the ancient legends."

"The ancient legend?" Fouquet gave off a cynical laugh. "Could have gone to any library for that."

"No. This is the_ complete _tales of the ancient legends. It has everything in it. It is part of the key to unimaginable power."

Wardes stepped all the way onto his gryphon. He tossed a bag of gold to Fouquet and flew off.

[/]

_Saito was right, there was nothing they could do. The Academy was swarmed with gryphon knights but the commotion soon died down. Everyone was instructed to return to sleep; the situation was controlled._

_Louise and Saito returned to their quarters after washing up. There was evidence someone had been awaiting them there but abruptly departed. _

_They didn't notice. Louise went to sleep with a heavy heart, and Saito did the same._

_Saito's tortured dreams returned. The man and the woman from the day dream of earlier appeared. At first, he was happy to be with those he knew he had loved. They all sat upon pillows around a table._

_But their faces were silent. They said nothing. The only noise was of eating._

_He wanted so much to reach out and speak. To say something, to announce that he was back. That he had only gone out to get his laptop repaired, and it was done._

_ Yet he did not._

_Slowly, the scene faded and found himself in a blank space. There was nothing around, it was all white. _

_Words began to fill the blankness. They coalesced together into sentences, then into paragraphs._

_"People died today, due to your inaction," the first sentence spoke solemnly._

_"Weren't you vowing that no one would die not longer than a week ago?" This sentence was sardonic._

_More sentences appeared, criticizing and finding every fault in him failing to save lives._

_They circled around and mocked him._

_He shouted and shouted back in response, wanting to give retorts on how necessary and little in number those deaths were. He wanted to justify himself and be righteous. But no words came._

_The forms continued increasing, shaping into larger and larger sentences. Paragraphs came. Essays and treatises and studies and digests abounded._

_One sentence rose above all the rest, echoing throughout the empty chamber._

_"What a great hero you are playing the part of, Saito. Look at yourself. Stuck in the spaces between sanity and reality and trying to have a shouting match with words."_

_Saito hung his head in shame, his hands going over his temples and molding themselves into fists. _

_And he stood there with white knuckles and heavy breathing. He looked around, and saw Louise fidgeting uneasily in her sleep, his own body off to the left upon his cot._

_Saito found himself out of himself._

_Moving as a ghost, Saito left the bedroom and walked outside. The soft grass did not crunch underneath his feet. The two moons glowed brightly, giving the Academy's courtyard an otherworldly finish of red and blue._

_Soon, even that moonlight faded. One black-haired man was left invisible in the darkness._

_Saito sighed. What came in his dreams had truth. _

_He hadn't be treating this world seriously. He hadn't been thinking of it as real._

_Most of him had known it was. But still, he hadn't gone about it entirely seriously. He went about it like it was a temporary thing, an obstacle in the course back to his real life back in Japan._

_And for that, people had died. People had died at Lagdorian, except they died few in number and in the cause of saving more lives._

_People died today for nothing. They died because of his inaction._

_"No more," he vowed. His fists were still clenched as tight as they had been in his dream. Now they were clenched in determination, however, and not anger._

_He wasn't going to give up on returning to Japan. But he wasn't leaving Halkeginia either. _

_It wasn't going to be him wishing for something to happen that wouldn't come. No fantasy at returning to Tokyo and leaving this all behind. A true Japanese man does not mope but accept what is laid out in stride. Why, he'd even said he wouldn't be moping earlier, and still he had. _

_"No more," he repeated._

_His actions today made him unworthy of Louise and those in his memories. But he vowed he would redeem himself._

_He would work at being Louise's familiar. He would turn himself into something great; something that'd achieve. He would become something honorable._

_And only then would he return to Japan. His head would be held high, and there be no shame. He would return to Japan, but not for the purposes of saying a sad goodbye or hoping it would all end._

_Only then would he speak to his family. Only to say a firm goodbye._

___It was time to start working at something. It was time to stop doing the bare minimum in life._

___Halkeginia's Sun rose as it always did, heralding a new day._

* * *

**END OF ACT I**

* * *

**ATTENTION READERS, THIS IS YOUR AUTHOR SPEAKING**

I think overall Saito deciding to stay the course in Halkeginia is actually something very common in anime as a whole. Anime series don't lend for a normal plot (let's exclude slices-of-life series). What I mean by "normal" is that even if the setting is modern day, the main characters will still be drenched in a fantastical world anyway. The protagonist will often leave behind what they've known for a new life, whether they're transported to an entirely different place or stay in a low-fantasy Earth is only aesthetics.

The latest example I've seen was Witch Craft Works, although there're metric tonnes more if one cares to look.

Really struck me how the main character seems more worried about that pretty girl saving him incurring slight harm than _what the actual fuck is going on. _I don't think he had more than five lines of thought about _everything I know is gone, this is terrible._

People shouldn't logically be able to psychologically handle this stuff, but they step up to the plate. You see, you leave the old world behind, because the new one's better. You can be a someone here.

Where was I going with the above analysis? I sort of lost it half way through.

Well, that's that.

new chapter see it here before end of month yay goodbye now hahahahhahaaaaaaaaaaa story is 1/2 done


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